Sex workers in Daylight the Social Context of Sex Work in Addis Ababa
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Date
2004-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
ABSTRACT
This thesis explores the social context of sex work in the city of Addis Ababa. It focuses
on the social ties between sex workers and a variety of other categories of people, from their family
members to their relatives, from their roommates to their neighbors, from their coworkers to their
clients. It explores which of these social ties are affirmed and reinforced, which come under strain
and which are cultivated and built by the women as a result of their engagement in sex work. It
argues that these things depend on the women's background, on the conditions under which they
turn to sex work, on the specific types and conditions of sex work that they do and on the places
and conditions of their residence. The main thesis of the work is that sex workers share the same
social milieu and value system with non-sex workers and that, despite severe constraints put on
them by poverty and very difficult working conditions, they struggle on a daily basis to have social
life and social relevance. The work critiques the very common castigation of sex workers as social
misfits who pose dangers to society and proposes a humane approach towards them and their
dependents, an approach that should begin by making a clear distinction between the institution of
commercial sex and the women who practice it.
The work employs both qualitative and quantitative methodology. It combines detailed
one-to-one inteNiewing with focus group discussions and personal obseNation to bring out the
perspectives of the women themselves. The quantitative data is composed of responses to a
structured questionnaire by 100 sex workers.
Description
Keywords
Addis Ababa, Sex work, sex workers, prostitution, prostitutes, social ties, socialization, identity, morality, patriarchy, feminism, differentiation, migration, housing, poverty.