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Abstract

Economic decline, such as we have witnessed in recent years, has disproportionately affected women and evidence demonstrates how financial hardship encourages entry to the sex industry. This worsens the working conditions within sex industry markets but, despite this, evidence documenting the effects of recent austerity measures on the sex industry is lacking. This article draws on qualitative longitudinal research following the 2007–2008 financial crisis to explore work trajectories and experiences of vulnerability through time among independent indoor sex workers in the UK. Participants’ experiences demonstrate worsening conditions in the mainstream labour market, particularly for women and, within this constraining context, sex work represents a choice to mitigate economic vulnerability. Yet this creates increased competition in the sex industry alongside declining demand, which compromises economic security and worker wellbeing. Exploring sex workers’ experiences over time contributes to a deeper understanding of the relationship between women’s work practices and vulnerability during economic decline, which is necessary to inform policy responses.

Keywords

austerity prostitution recession sex work time vulnerability

Introduction

Women’s overrepresentation in low-paid, part-time, and insecure positions in the labour market increases their vulnerability during economic recessions (Karamessini, 2013; Rubery, 2013), which has been demonstrated in the financial crisis of 2007, the economic downturn following pandemic-related closures (Bell et al., 2020; Rubery and Távora, 2021), and the current cost of living crisis (Living Wage Foundation, 2022; Women’s Budget Group (WBG), 2022). Throughout recent years, we have witnessed a programme of austerity measures that have acted to reduce costs to the state and businesses at the expense of the public and workers (Lehtonin, 2018; Rubery et al., 2005). Evidence shows that declining labour market conditions and cuts to welfare drives entry into the sex industry (English Collective of Prostitutes, 2019) and many women take on second jobs in the sex industry to boost their existing incomes and to weather higher living costs (Sanders et al., 2016).

To date, however, empirical studies into sex working practices during austerity and economic decline are lacking. This article addresses this by analysing experiences of economic vulnerability between 2007 and 2018 among self-employed indoor sex workers, both in mainstream and in sex work, to explore the effects of previous recession on work trajectories and working conditions. Understanding these experiences is pertinent given the current cost of living crisis alongside the ongoing deepening of neoliberal labour conditions and austerity measures. The qualitative longitudinal approach used in this research further enables a valuable understanding of change and continuity in participants’ simultaneous experiences on the continuums of vulnerability, resistance, exploitation, and agency through time.

This exploration of participants’ pasts, presents, and futures draws on theories of vulnerability (Emmel, 2017; Mackenzie et al., 2014) and reflexivity (Archer, 2007) to understand vulnerability as an experience mediated by individual action and broader social and economic contexts, and how it is used in the regulation of behaviour (Brown, 2017). This approach recognises each of the participant’s trajectories differ according to their background, available resources and personal outlook and highlights the myriad ways in which participants can experience vulnerability and act to overcome it. The article thus seeks first to outline the economic context and its relevance for experiences of vulnerability, before detailing the research undertaken to explore this in relation to the sex industry.

Vulnerability in an economic context

While this research was undertaken in response to economic decline, the findings and arguments made are cognisant of the opportunity recession provides to further entrench capitalist values through austerity (Di Bernardo, 2016; Lehtonin, 2018). Participants’ experiences of economic decline thus represent the continuation of poor economic experiences for many working classes (Emmel and Hughes, 2010), rather than a significant point of change. Consequently, today’s labour market is increasingly defined by casualisation, flexibilisation, and zero-hour contracts, whereby a cheap workforce is positioned as disposable (Rubery et al., 2016). Work is increasingly short-term and insecure, which leaves increasing numbers in a low pay, no pay cycle (Shildrick et al., 2012), churning between short-term jobs. Conversely, those in work experience an intensification of work: workers are pushed to produce more within less time to increase their efficiency and maximise profits (Everingham, 2002). In the name of flexibility, employers have sought to control more of the worker’s time, removed temporal protections, and encouraged self-regulation in work contracts (Rubery et al., 2005; Tuckman, 2005) to fuel the capitalistic drive for productivity and efficiency. The worker is thus expected to offer constant availability to supply and produce while there is demand; to fail to do so indicated inefficiency and a lost opportunity for profit.

Rather than suggesting this represents another critical juncture where conditions are inevitably worsened, this article draws attention to the continuation of declining conditions at work and welfare for many driven by ongoing capitalist values. Recent economic decline together with rising inflation and costs to businesses does, however, provide further opportunity for the entrenchment of such values, where organisations will look to make further efficiency savings to protect profit margins.

Evidence demonstrates how declining conditions in formal labour markets encourages entry to informal ones (Schneider and Enste, 2016). In particular, increasing numbers of women turn to sex work because of inadequate working conditions and income from mainstream work (English Collective of Prostitutes, 2019; Walkowitz, 2017). As such, an exploration of how such conditions impact entry and work in the sex industry is of particular significance in economic conditions which disproportionately impact women’s positions in the labour market.

The sex industry has suffered worsening conditions as a result of the pandemic, also (Platt et al., 2020). Sex workers have experienced heightened stigma during this time as a result of the construction of sex workers as ‘vectors of disease’ (Kimani et al., 2020), which has constrained economic decisions further. Indeed, in line with social distancing guidance, many sex workers were unable to offer contact services and online alternatives and working from home were unsuitable for many due to lacking the required technology or lacking the time and space away from others and childcare commitments (Jarvis-King, 2020). Sex workers were also often discouraged from applying for support through their marginalised status (International Committee on the Rights of Sex Workers in Europe (ICRSE), 2020), and this will be of varied consequence according to the personal resources and structural concerns of each individual. Furthermore, financial support offered to self-employed workers was shortcoming given the irregularity and transitory nature of sex work incomes (Brouwers and Herrmann, 2020). Indeed, while 90% of sex worker respondents to research conducted by the National Ugly Mugs scheme indicated that they had lost income as a result of the pandemic, only 42% were able to access government support (National Ugly Mugs, 2020: 16), including universal credit and the self-employment income support scheme.

This context signals the potential for increasing vulnerability among sex workers; a group who already experienced levels of economic vulnerability through the nature of self-employment (Cohen et al., 2018). Varying and intersecting experiences of vulnerability are faced by a diverse sex worker population, according to a range of inherent, situational, and pathogenic circumstances (Mackenzie et al., 2014) and sex workers are not rendered ‘powerless’ but are capable of proactively negotiating and mitigating vulnerability to achieve ‘flourishing’ (Emmel, 2017). The importance lies in a definition of vulnerability that recognises the relationship between individual action and social, political, economic, and environmental context, which accounts for the differences in experiences of vulnerability and participants’ varying work decisions.

Discussions of sex workers’ vulnerability have primarily focused on the debilitating effects of regulatory models (Orchiston, 2016), particularly in relation to the harm caused through criminalisation. In the UK, while selling sex is not criminalised, advertising and specific work spaces are regulated and working with others is illegal. Instead, clients are criminalised for purchasing sex, and the increased risk-taking needed to purchase sex has encouraged riskier clientele (Della Giusta et al., 2021). This legal model increases stigma, introduces greater risks and inhibits alternative solutions to the vulnerability experienced by sex working women (Brown and Sanders, 2017; Graham, 2017). Comparatively, regulated policy models are also viewed as unfavourable among sex workers (Cruz, 2013; Garofalo Geymonat and Macioti, 2016) because of the need for individualised rather than externally set rules, and also that this model does not necessarily guarantee access to labour protections (Cruz, 2013; Orchiston, 2016).

Alternatively, decriminalisation would remove criminal sanctions related to sex work and allow sex workers to organise their work according to their individual safety needs, such as working with others. Decriminalising sex work would thus reduce social harm (Armstrong, 2021) by removing risks of criminal sanctions and recognising the opportunities sex work presents to mitigate harm and economic vulnerability. Decriminalisation is important, therefore, as it would contribute to reducing stigma (Weitzer, 2012), despite not eradicating it (Gilmour, 2016), which is detrimental to the wellbeing and security of sex workers and also remove the risk of criminal penalties, which encourages greater risk-taking.

This article builds on existing understandings of the legal context by exploring economic vulnerability to understand work-related decision-making and contributes to understandings of sex workers’ quality of work outside of common explorations of deviance (Adriaenssens et al., 2016). Indeed, the legal and economic contexts surrounding sex work are intertwined. Preventing indoor sex workers from working from the same premises, for example, has an impact on their safety and the costs and expenses associated with their work (Sanders and Campbell, 2007), and policy which encourages riskier clientele increases stigma and the likelihood of clients negotiating on price (Della Giusta et al., 2021). Similarly to the self-responsibilisation of risk to sex workers in legal discourses which undermines vulnerability status in the criminal justice system (Ahearne, 2019), participants’ accounts demonstrate the self-responsibilisation of economic vulnerability, whereby they are positioned as undeserving of support and responsible for overcoming financial insecurity. Sex work is thus used to navigate economic vulnerability, which is exacerbated by economic and policy landscapes. Decriminalising and legitimising sex work through revised legal understandings that pose sex workers as neither criminals nor victims and recognise their economic choice to sex work would therefore contribute to safer working practices and, correspondingly, contribute to alleviating the economic vulnerability experienced by sex workers.

Researching vulnerability over time

The research was shaped by concerns surrounding economic conditions on working practices in the independent indoor sex industry; questioning how this has influenced sex workers’ experiences of vulnerability through time. This demanded an examination of pasts, presents and futures in their dynamic contexts as part of a qualitative longitudinal research design. The theoretical and methodological focus on time worked in synthesis to enhance understandings of participant trajectories in the context of their structural and personal concerns (Archer, 2007).

Independent sex work is currently the primary form of sex work as working alone from private premises is legal and is easily facilitated by Internet technologies, despite the risks lone-working poses to workers (Sanders et al., 2018). With this in mind, nine self-employed, independent sex working women in Northern England were recruited through a gatekeeper organisation (three participants) and through contact via an online advertising platform (six participants). No participants had engaged in other research previously, which limits the extent to which research findings draw on the same pool of experiences.

Each participant took part in one to four interviews in 2014–2018. The duration of research engagement depended on a number of factors, including the participant’s circumstances and the date of entry into the research. Ultimately, the research presented here uses 51 hours of interview data from a total of 25 interviews. Researching repeatedly over time added depth to the researcher-participant relationship and the data produced through it, which was invaluable to the complex and sometimes sensitive nature of the research. The small sample is not representative of the whole sex work population, which is diverse and heterogeneous, but the need for in-depth accounts was prioritised and, through researching with a small sample over time, I was able to gather complex and nuanced data. Participants’ accounts were tested and analysed using the casing methodology proposed by Emmel (2013) to synthesise ideas from the small sample.

Participants’ backgrounds varied, as had their trajectories inside the sex industry. Participants’ ages ranged from 25 to 55 years, and the length of time engaged in sex work also varied, with a range of 2–20 years. Some had worked in other sectors of the industry while others had only worked on a self-employed basis as independent escorts. All participants cited their income as variable and fluctuating, with those who had worked in the industry for longer reporting a decline in income over the previous decade. Despite attempts to attract migrant workers specifically, a notable omission from this research is a detailed account of migrant sex workers’ experiences in the sex industry, as participants were all legal residents of the United Kingdom. Given the pressures of needing to send money home, together with less familial support and reduced access to benefits, it could reasonably be argued that the conditions detailed in this article are exacerbated among migrant workers because of more complex economic needs (Brouwers and Herrmann, 2020) and reduced access to legal support and labour protections (Cruz, 2013).

Exploration of participants’ experiences over time was facilitated by the production of participatory time maps as the basis of the interview process, whereby participants were asked to illustrate on paper their work histories and experiences from 2007 onwards. These visual representations of time facilitated participants to focus on moments in time, make connections and project the future. These cases provided a rich insight into the organisation of sex work and allowed the mapping of participants’ accounts against dynamic broader contexts, which forms the basis of the ensuing discussion.

Backgrounds of intersecting vulnerability

Educational attainment has been shown to correlate with income levels, employment stability, and unemployment (Taylor et al., 2012). The educational backgrounds of participants varied, with some having no academic qualifications (Emily and Michelle), others having studied at higher education level (Natalie, Isobel, Amanda, Claire), and/or professional qualifications in areas related to health and social care (Amanda, Lucy, Gabrielle, and Deborah). Some participants recognised the potential economic benefits of education and three participants were studying at the time of the research to potentially develop a future career outside the sex industry (Amanda, Isobel and Lucy). These participants acknowledged that this was made possible through sex work income, as the rising costs of university often act as a barrier to accessing education (Roberts et al., 2012). In this sense, while sex work leads to a greater experience of many types of vulnerability, it also provides relative economic security and represents a reflexive attempt to overcome economic vulnerability.

Despite two participants (Emily and Michelle) both holding no qualifications and potentially at equal risk of economic vulnerability, the outcomes of the two participants are quite different, which stems from intersecting vulnerability elsewhere in their lives. Michelle started work in the sex industry much earlier in her life than Emily and was able to start her own brothel business through established relationships with colleagues. While brothel-keeping introduces greater risk around criminal sanctions, this move also demonstrates Michelle’s agency and ability to choose, demonstrating greater control over her life:

I worked in a parlour for quite a few years and I learned a lot and I saved a bit, and then a load of the girls were complaining about not being looked after properly and I thought I could probably do a set up like this myself and make sure all the girls and me were looked after. I only wanted to do it if it were safe. (Michelle)

Emily, conversely, experiences chronic illness and disability which has affected her ability to engage in paid employment, demonstrating how a complex web of other circumstances influence exposure to vulnerability. This emphasises the need to understand intersecting identities and vulnerability through the lifecourse (Emmett and Alant, 2007). In this case, Emily’s class, education, gender and disability shape her navigation through work. Emily had left school and undertaken paid employment in the mainstream economy before experiencing a range of health issues which meant that she could no longer work:

I’ve had periods of having a job and then illness and stuff happening and then not having a job. I’ve probably spent more time unemployed or on the sick than I have in employment in the last ten years. (Emily)

For Emily, sex work was a viable option to gain income given that mainstream employment was difficult to manage with her disability, reflective of the limitations to mainstream employment for those with fluctuating disabilities (Carmichael and Clarke, 2020). Given the sex industry provides feasible income opportunities for disabled sex workers (Fritsch et al., 2016), this reinforces the need for safer working practices through decriminalisation of the sex industry.

Varying experiences of economic security stem from intersecting vulnerability over time. Emily, for example, managed significant material shortages due to disability, which subsequently increased experiences of vulnerability as she was unable to address present needs or plan for the future. The longer-term inability to readjust this trajectory demonstrates how vulnerability is experienced and shaped through time. Importantly, it demonstrates how disadvantaged individuals perceive a period of economic decline as a continuation of poor conditions, rather than marking a point of change (Emmel and Hughes, 2010):

It’s just a constant, sometimes I just feel like I’m on a merry-go-round, and I think, well, I can’t do much with my life, because of my health issues. (Emily)

Participants who experienced vulnerability from earlier in the lifecourse thus had more reserved expectations for their futures (Thomson et al., 2010).

Participants who were previously less exposed to vulnerability and greater access to resources, such as Natalie and Deborah, were able to map out a more controlled trajectory. Interruptions to this trajectory were more distressing to them, however:

It was hard for me, especially because in a way I was still mourning for my life. I was only a year off actually completing my degree and I’d already, because I kept getting placements in the same hospital and I had pretty much been promised that I was going to get an interview at the end of it, so I had it all lined up. I’m somebody who likes to have a plan. (Natalie)

Various events left Natalie exposed to vulnerability and her levels of material resources, the extent to which she was able to address her needs, access support services, and plan for the future varied according to a range of circumstances at different times. Despite having different expected trajectories, most of the participants were exposed to vulnerability at various points in their working lives, although those with greater access to personal resources were able to demonstrate greater control in many ways, such as viewing their sex work as a business opportunity rather than a tool for survival.

Declining conditions in the mainstream labour market

Three participants (Deborah, Gabrielle, and Natalie) entered the sex industry following redundancy and subsequently experiencing poor labour conditions in the mainstream economy. This coincides with huge swathes of redundancies in both the public and private sector, with the commencement of the freeze on public sector wages as organisations took the opportunity to reduce costs and boost efficiency:

I took a voluntary redundancy in August 2012 . . . they did away with the grade above me. They were trying to just get rid of all old boys and girls. Then we knew that they’d come for our grade because we were senior officers and the officers that’d been in the job a long time, because we were too costly. (Gabrielle)

I graduated in July, but I actually had a graduate job lined up from the April . . . so I actually started working as a graduate before I’d graduated so I started off pretty well. But that lasted six months . . . I was working for a big company in a graduate scheme doing stuff with the head office and then they decided that they were going to move all their operations to Eastern Europe because of the financial crisis here. (Natalie)

Having lost the security of their previous roles, Deborah and Natalie became subject to the ‘cyclical churning’ between low-paid and low-skilled jobs in a mainstream labour market defined by insecurity and intensification (Shildrick et al., 2012):

I worked in a supermarket, pick and packing for the online stuff. I worked in a bar. And I worked in a hotel. Three jobs at minimum wage. And I was going from one to the other. And obviously the wage I was getting was nothing like what I was used to. I was trying to do three jobs to make up for the wages I had lost and the jobs that could get me more part-time than full-time. (Deborah)

Having been accustomed to a relatively high wage in management, Deborah attempted to make up for a shortfall by working a demanding schedule of three minimum wage jobs. Indeed, the growth of highly skilled workers in a labour market which lacks skilled employment opportunities forces those with education and skills to seek lower skilled work (Taylor et al., 2012). This has the effect of reducing the availability of work for lower-skilled workers also. In an economy defined by these poor working conditions, many workers at all levels engage in lower paid work and there are increasing risks of low income, poverty, and unemployment.

Natalie was motivated to find work because of the negative connotations associated with accessing benefits and she took a low-paid administrative role where she struggled financially. The organisation subsequently changed her contracted working hours which could not be managed alongside her caring responsibilities:

They changed my shift because I’d been saying I wanted additional responsibilities and more money . . . I agreed because they promised me a promotion at the end of it, for three months and three months only . . . it almost killed me . . . They wouldn’t let me change it back; at the end of it they said no because everyone else has left the five AM shift so you’re going to have to continue. (Natalie)

Despite their education levels and middle-class backgrounds, both Deborah and Natalie found themselves subject to poor labour conditions. Interestingly, of all the participants, only Deborah and Natalie directly ascribed their increased vulnerability to economic decline, having experienced redundancies as a result of company cost-saving exercises and finding it difficult to subsequently find quality work. Previously, they had enjoyed relative stability and had less experience of economic vulnerability. This mirrors the findings of Thomson et al. (2010) that those with greater assets were most worried about the economic downturn because they had more to lose and had yet to be impacted by economic recession.

Accessing welfare to mitigate vulnerability

There have been significant changes to welfare also, with several revisions – predominantly reductions – to the welfare system since 2010. Such welfare efficiencies are often cited as a response to financial crises but reflect ongoing cost-savings and a reduction of the state (Lehtonin, 2018). Correspondingly, most participants of this research had accessed or attempted to access welfare and subsequently experienced the welfare system over a period of change. Participants cited a lack of support when engaging with the welfare system, as well as difficulties in receiving payments, which led to increased exposure to financial vulnerability:

They had a mess up with me having to go for medical assessment and all that stuff. It took nearly nine months to get any benefits help. They would pay my rent, but I was literally no income whatsoever. It got to the point where I sold anything of value to live. To be able to get food and feed the pets. Just to carry on life. And all my debts spiraled out of control and just everything was just all a downward spiral. I used a food bank and things were just too much to cope with and not knowing what my injuries were and the fact that it wasn’t getting any better. It was getting worse. (Emily)

For Emily, her lack of access to support services meant that her life ‘spiralled’ towards chaos. She lacked a diagnosis and subsequent treatment, which meant her condition was deteriorating, but she was also unable to work or access financial support, which had severe consequences for her ability to address present needs. Effectively, she was plunged further into vulnerability.

Comparatively, Natalie, who used benefits for a short period after escaping domestic violence with her child, found that she was able to access the welfare services she needed because she had evidence of needing support:

I personally had no problems, but I came in armed with letters from Women’s Aid. I was already under a police thing called MARAC – risk of homicide – so I come in armed with all this. (Natalie)

Natalie’s higher level of education advances her ability to access services (Taylor et al., 2012), which may have contributed to her effectiveness in communicating a need for support. The differences in experience among participants in accessing services reveal the differentiation between those perceived as deserving or undeserving of support (Brown, 2015), with certain circumstances prioritised within support services. Natalie was deemed deserving of support because the circumstances allowed for an easier categorisation of victimhood, corresponding to the definition of vulnerability in policy terms. In comparison, Emily whose welfare needs resulted from invisible disability was seen as less deserving and constructed as a personal failing (Geiger, 2021). In an economic context of declining labour conditions and inadequate welfare provision, many participants had commenced work in the sex industry as a reflexive attempt to mitigate vulnerability.

Change and continuity in sex industry working practices and conditions

The choice to sex work is reflective of women using agency to control their lives and stabilise their economic positions, where participants make reflexive decisions within the context of structural and cultural concerns (Archer, 2007). Motivations to sex work and routes into the industry are thus diverse and complex. Economic motivations are vital (Sanders et al., 2016), however, as is the case for all paid labour, and are shaped by women’s positions within the economy where sex work may represent an opportunity among a lack of alternative options, a means of survival, or better working conditions and greater financial reward.

The cited benefits of sex working over other forms of work have been well-documented and many sex workers report high levels of job satisfaction (Sanders et al., 2016), as did the participants of this study. The key positive characteristics of sex work include the higher financial value of time, flexibility in working hours and relative independence. Here I consider how these motivators have influenced participants’ decisions in the context of their personal concerns and how changing economic contexts have influenced them.

The monetary value of time in sex work

All participants indicated that the level of income was a primary motivator to work in the industry, having previously experienced demanding and low-paid work or unemployment in the mainstream economy:

Being able to go and spend £50 in Aldi rather than spending £16 in a corner shop trying to scramble together enough food for the week . . . it’s a vast difference. It’s the security of it. (Natalie)

Natalie, in comparison to some other participants, had fortunately achieved a steady income through encouraging regular clientele through the specific services she offers, which is why she refers to the security of income. She is also newer to the industry and less accustomed to fluctuating trade and increased competition, as I discuss further shortly. More generally, sex work income is experienced as precarious given these changeable conditions although, because it is relatively higher than work in the mainstream labour market, Natalie also refers here to her ability to future plan more securely: purchasing enough food for a longer duration rather than struggling on a day-to-day basis. The conditions of participants’ lives were significantly improved with the relatively higher income from sex work and it reduced struggling with the daily costs of living towards gaining relatively more control.

Those who worked prior to the recession had largely maintained their hourly rates at the same level despite the cost of living rising, which is reflective of broader labour conditions whereby wages have stagnated against increasing living costs (ONS, 2021). Despite maintaining their rate, some clients nevertheless push to achieve greater value, and there was evidence that a minority of clients attempted to haggle or drive down the value of sex workers’ time:

[Some clients] have decided that they don’t like the fact the rates are increasing, so they’ve now, they’re now kind of making this little mutiny where they’re only see girls that are £100 an hour or less and they think it’s going to bring the market down . . . they’re deluded. (Natalie)

While this does reflect a potential for clients to exercise greater levels of power in their negotiations during economic decline based on sex workers’ heightened economic need, the power relationships inherent in these negotiations are far more complex. Most participants refused to negotiate on prices because of the perceived power loss inherent in reducing the value of their time and also from a sense of community with other sex workers: reducing their rates would effectively require others to reduce their incomes also. Although there is no official advice regarding negotiation of prices, most participants were aware of the wider implications and avoided doing so.

The context of clients’ demands for cost reductions had spurred one participant to offer discounts, however:

Sometimes I’ve maybe like make him an offer if he didn’t last that long, because, obviously, everybody’s struggling for money, aren’t they? I try to be value for money at the end of the day. (Emily)

Negotiating rates was rare and generally confined to those with greater economic needs. This demonstrates the varying level of control sex workers hold over their work, depending on their personal circumstances and in difficult market conditions. Those with greater access to resources may feel more able to maintain prices than those experiencing greater levels of vulnerability. All other participants were conscious of broader market conditions and had sufficient resources to allow them to exercise power in maintaining their prices and continue to attract custom through offering specialised services throughout the duration of this research. Thus, while consumers do exercise some power in the exchange, the sex worker, who sets her own rates, exercises far greater control over the value of the time duration purchased.

Independence, control, and flexibility over working times

The higher value of time often means those working in the industry can afford to work less intensely in comparison to other forms of work which, together with their independence and control over working hours (Garofalo Geymonat and Macioti, 2016; Gilmour, 2016), affords sex workers greater flexibility (Sanders et al., 2016). Through this flexibility, all participants described relative temporal freedom as part of their work, which meant they could reinvest their time in other parts of their lives:

It meant that I could be there for my daughter’s things, like I could go to her school plays and things. (Natalie)

Work which could be organised around childcare commitments was important to participants with children, especially given the rising costs and inflexibility of childcare (Rutter, 2015). Flexibility in general, however, was a prized aspect of the work.

In recent times, participants reported arranging their working hours to meet client demand, rather than according to their own preferences, however. The pressure to earn within difficult economic conditions had threatened the flexibility previously enjoyed by self-employed sex workers (Gilmour, 2016). This stemmed from a decline in the level of custom since 2010 when clients’ disposable incomes may have reduced and companies sought efficiencies through reducing employee expense accounts, as perceived by participants who had worked in the industry for several years:

I think punters are punting less. I think some of the ones who would have punted twice a month will be punting once a month instead. I think some of the blokes who would have had hours go to half-hours. You work around it and work more flexibly. (Claire)

Reduction in demand meant that those who had worked prior to the 2007 financial crisis experienced a decline in their income and struggled subsequently to make up for the shortfall. Participants reported having to work longer and more intensely to advertise and offer more niche services in an attempt to attract the demand that was there.

This was further problematised by increasing competition as a result of greater numbers of workers entering the sex industry:

Well just before the recession I used to do fifteen to twenty a day, there . . . and then you’d do, maybe, ten to fifteen, because there’s a lot more girls. When I first started working you could earn £1000 a week and you only had to work three days and now you have to work about twelve for that. The amount you have to work has increased. (Lucy)

Those who had worked prior to 2007 were accustomed to a market which required less energy to generate custom and subsequently struggled to maintain the same level of income, which is paralleled in other sectors of the sex industry also (Sanders and Hardy, 2012). Consequently, participants who had experienced these changes felt that work intensity had increased and the value of their time at work reduced, which mirrors the intensification found in mainstream work (Everingham, 2002; Shildrick et al., 2012). While newer sex workers may still find advantages in the flexibility and higher value of work time in the sex industry, conditions were declining and were not impervious to the pressures mainstream markets were experiencing.

Impact of economic vulnerability on sex workers’ wellbeing

These conditions problematise financial planning, rendering sex workers increasingly economically vulnerable, especially considering the already unpredictable nature of self-employment (Cohen et al., 2018; Sanders et al., 2016). Because of this, many workers feel increasing pressure to earn while work is available:

You don’t know when your next client is coming, you might not have anybody for the rest of the week, you think do I cut my nose off to spite my face and risk not seeing you even though I’ve got nothing else on the afternoon. (Deborah)

Given the choice of waiting or working, most participants were spurred to work and gain an income when available in the moment because of the unpredictability of custom. These market conditions thus act to reduce sex workers’ control over time.

This has implications for the safety and wellbeing of sex workers, with costs to their mental health through strain and also their physical safety should they choose to be less discerning about their clients to secure further income. Most participants expressed uncertainty about taking time away from work and reported stress as a result:

It’s really hard when time equals money to set aside an hour to go and eat something healthy, no I set aside ten minutes to go to Greggs even though I’ve made £500 in the morning . . . I felt that I was losing money by not working rather than thinking no, that’s not how it works. Because every hour has . . . and it’s . . . it got me actually feeling guilty for doing something like having my tea. (Amanda)

I’ve got better but I’m never truly off work. I have got better though; I’ll leave my phone on silent for the whole Saturday but at some point, I will have to check that work phone. You just can’t help yourself. You always feel like you’re missing out on something. And it’s like when I go on holiday, I always set everything to I’m on holiday, but you still get people bloody emailing you. (Claire)

This intensification of work to boost productivity is not unique to sex work and is felt broadly by many different workers in the mainstream economy (Brown, 2012; Shildrick et al., 2012). The subsequent pressure to work more intensely to secure income has many negative consequences to the health of the worker (Brown, 2012).

Conversely, participants who experienced greater financial security and less pressure to earn felt more comfortable in turning clients away to ensure downtime:

For the last month, I have just been seeing the same two guys every week . . . and one-offs sometimes but I’m mainly just sticking to those. I don’t know how but I think in my head I thought I was taking a bit of a break for the summer; I think I’ve just wound down for the summer. (Isobel)

While all participants recognised that time is ascribed an economic value, there was evidence among the sample that participants tried to resist this, carving out protections for their personal respite time. This is made possible by the flexibility afforded through the relatively high wages of sex work and the independence sex workers experience in setting their own working hours, but it was also variable according to the personal and structural concerns of the individual.

Conclusion

Poor mainstream labour conditions and inadequate welfare prompted all participants to enter the sex industry, where they sought flexible work which provides a relatively higher income. Examining such transitions between mainstream and sex work illustrates how experiences of vulnerability shape work-related decision-making over time, which is influenced by a broad range of factors, including their health, social class, education levels, labour market conditions, the availability, cost and quality of childcare, and their personal relationships. The diversity of participants’ personal and structural concerns, their responses to them, and the fluctuations and changes to these concerns over time emphasise the need for multifarious policy responses to economic decline.

Participants’ poor experiences of the mainstream labour market were exacerbated during economic decline and with further economic decline predominantly impacting mainstream labour sectors with an overrepresentation of female employees, there are further threats to women’s access to quality work. There is a need to protect these sectors to maintain women’s employment opportunities and to strengthen women’s labour market positions more generally by encouraging equity through more balanced and flexible working arrangements for all genders (Rubery and Távora, 2021).

This research has demonstrated how work time flexibility is an important and valued aspect of work for women. Flexible working policies should be encouraged, while protecting workers from exploitation through insecure contracts and onerous or erratic working times. In relation to this, the cost and quality of childcare is important as unaffordable and inflexible childcare is a barrier to women accessing work. Furthermore, the strengthening of policies designed to tackle income inequality and the introduction of a true living wage would reduce the financial pressures experienced by working-class women.

Poor working conditions in the sex industry are a result of capitalist conditions across the economy, including heightening competition, lack of protection and security, and demands for efficiency. Improving mainstream labour market conditions and access to welfare would also improve conditions in the sex industry by reducing the number of women turning to the sex industry for work. This would prevent the saturation of sex industry markets, which has heightened competition, driven down sex workers’ incomes and caused work intensification in the sex industry over recent years. Of course, sex workers’ incomes have been further jeopardised during the pandemic where many ceased work and lost income entirely, which emphasises the need to less discriminatory financial support in times of hardship. In the longer term, however, protecting and correctly valuing women’s participation in the mainstream labour market would have a significant impact in stabilising sex workers’ incomes.

Participants’ narratives reinforce existing evidence demonstrating that sex work is a proactive economic choice (English Collective of Prostitutes, 2019; Weitzer, 2012), which is used to mitigate vulnerability. Vulnerability is also introduced through the often risky nature of sex work, and sex workers balance this in their economic decisions, although, as previously mentioned, this could be improved through revised legal approaches. Reframing the vulnerability of sex workers from powerless victims in need of regulation towards active agents who manage their vulnerability emphasises their choice to sex work and promotes the recognition of sex work as work.

Fundamentally, improving women’s positions in the labour market in central to progress in recognising sex work as work, but also to alleviating the poor conditions experienced in sex works. As Cruz (2013) proposes, the recognition and legitimisation of sex work must be considered alongside the need for protection from the capitalist labour market. Addressing the capitalist conditions shaping the current labour market and ensuring secure, flexible, and well-paid work would help to ameliorate the structural conditions, which drive entry into the sex industry. This would act to legitimise sex work as a proactive economic choice and improve work conditions inside the industry, as well as outside it. When women are given the opportunity for quality working conditions, including flexibility and fair compensation, across the labour market, decisions to sex work will be understood in the context of balanced economic choice.

Footnotes

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

ORCID iD

Laura Jarvis-King

Author biography

Laura Jarvis-King is a Research Associate engaged in research on experiences of digitalisation in work at the Work and Equalities Institute, University of Manchester. Prior to this, she completed a PhD at the University of Leeds while employed on a number of research projects on the sex industry, work, and labour processes more generally. Her research investigates practices of time, work, leisure, consumption, and power in the sex industry, within the contexts of a digital, capitalist, and civilising society.

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Trajectories of Vulnerability and Resistance Among Independent Indoor Sex Workers During Economic Decline

Abstract

Keywords

Introduction

Vulnerability in an economic context

Researching vulnerability over time

Backgrounds of intersecting vulnerability

Declining conditions in the mainstream labour market

Accessing welfare to mitigate vulnerability

Change and continuity in sex industry working practices and conditions

The monetary value of time in sex work

Independence, control, and flexibility over working times

Impact of economic vulnerability on sex workers’ wellbeing

Conclusion

Footnotes

Funding

ORCID iD

Author biography

References