The Intersecting Severe and Multiple Disadvantages Facing Women Involved in Street-Based Prostitution
Implications for Social Work
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18060/28819Keywords:
Street-based prostitution, severe and multiple disadvantage, gendered structural inequalities, intersectionality, feminist social workAbstract
This article examines the lives of women involved in street-based prostitution through the lens of severe and multiple disadvantage. Involvement in street-based prostitution often intersects with experiences of homelessness, substance misuse, poor mental health and violence and abuse. Yet women are often held responsible for these complex and intersecting experiences. Through applying the lens of severe and multiple disadvantage to semi-structured interviews undertaken with ten women involved in street-based prostitution, this article illuminates the gendered structural inequalities that continue to shape and maintain their disadvantage. By conceptualising street-based prostitution as one of multiple disadvantage, it moves away from focusing on single issues and individual needs towards a more nuanced understanding of how domains of disadvantage are intertwined and exacerbate each other. In doing so it highlights the opportunities for social work to improve the lives of women involved in street-based prostitution through a commitment to place gendered structural inequalities at the heart of its practice and reconnect with its critical roots.
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