Prohibited Sexual Behavior and Sexual Violence

Prostitution: Female Prostitution: Summary

Female prostitution in its various forms - past, present, and future - presents a challenge to sex research. It is a phenomenon that combines biological and socio-cultural features in the most intricate way: Physical urges and psychological needs are shaped and satisfied in ways that reflect age-old patterns of gender inequality. Understanding prostitution may therefore be impossible without understanding the many forms and facets of human dependency.
First of all, we must recognize that the female sex in general is still largely dependent on the male sex, not only economically, but also politically and culturally. Many patriarchal structures persist even in modern industrial and post-industrial societies. The most important kind of dependency, however, may be psychological. The way in which female and male gender role behavior is still being taught and learned produces a psychological imbalance that opens the way to various kinds of exploitation. The economic exploitation of women is all the easier as they continue to be disadvantaged in the workplace. World-wide, their social status if usually lower, they are not given the same level of education, do not receive equal pay for equal work, and more of them live in poverty. This, in turn, facilitates their exploitation by traffickers. Indeed, many “sex workers” depend on their meager income for their sheer survival.  Furthermore, it is not a coincidence that the great centers of sex tourism are found in poor countries. Finally, the criminal and civil laws that are directly or indirectly related to prostitution are largely the work of male legislators.