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Extract from The Dynamics of Sex Work
GAD Talk Bulletin, Vol3, May 2002
Zimbabwe Women's Resource Centre and Network (ZWRCN)
May 2002

Why do women become Sex workers?

Historical forces
Both the old and the new testaments of the bible have references to Sex work. Despite this, religious leaders have tended to shy away from the debate around SW and the very positive part the churches and other religious institutions and groups can play in finding solutions to the problem we face.

There are historical records that show that even before colonization Sex work was part and parcel of our societies. It may have been less obvious than it is today, but it did exist.

Colonialism brought with it cash economy and a capitalist system of trading. The desire to extract natural resources and wealth from Zimbabwe and generate income saw the development and growth of higher migrant laborers. These men were forced to live in hostels and were forbidden to bring their families to live with them. About 60% of them were aged 30 and under. Many of them had either become single by being separated from their families or were still single. The colonial ruler feared that the men would rape the white women so they encouraged and fostered systematic Sex work.

Urbanization
During the liberation struggle parents and relatives encouraged their children to move into urban areas and escape from the effects of war. Along with the external forces that led to urban migration there were a number of social responses and cultural forces that brought women to cities in search of new opportunities. With low wages and poor housing conditions the men working in the towns were unable to support their families in the rural areas such that women’s lives were affected. Once they arrived into towns’ women were often more dependant on men because of the towns cash economy.

Economic forces
Factors like poverty and unemployment are by far the most important reasons for why Sex work exists in our country. No time shows that more the current economic crisis we are in. With inflation well above the 113% mark and unemployment at an estimated 70% - both of these are forces that impact very negatively on women’s abilities and opportunities to economically empower themselves, Sex work can become a major trade.

Structural adjustment policies have also played their part. ESAP resulted in retrenchments which meant less incomes for families, increase in prices, high inflation rates, social problems and hence a higher divorce rate.

• Young women leaving school can't find jobs and they haven't been trained for self-employment. Their parents can no longer support them.
• Some young women are seduced by sugar daddies, and then abandoned.
• Most widows in Zimbabwe are left destitute after the death of a spouse. Divorced women, especially the majority who did not go through a legal divorce, are often left destitute after a marriage breakdown.
• Many women, regardless of their marital status, think that they are solely responsible for the support of their children.
• Some wives are not adequately maintained (or sexually satisfied) particularly in some polygamous marriages or where the husband is an irresponsible migrant worker who has forgotten his wife at home.

A study conducted by Sian Hale on Prostitution in Zimbabwe (1992-93) reveals that most of the respondents were at one point married and then divorced which led them into prostitution. Some sited peer pressure as a reason for going into Sex work.

Men coerce women into prostitution by using a variety of deceptive promises ranging from promises of jobs, marriage. Barry, 1981, highlights the "invisible enslavement" of love and loyalty (for a pimp) to physical kidnapping and imprisonment. He stresses that female sexual slavery is present in all situations where women and girls can not change the immediate conditions of their existence: where regardless of how they got into those conditions and they can not get out and where they are subject to sexual violence and exploitation.

Some women practice prostitution as a profession to support a ‘love object’- a man, a woman, parents, and siblings. Enjoyment is not a determining factor of Sex work and sexual encounters. The greater need of providing a source of income for the family forces them to continue with the trade. One woman is on record as saying of her Sex work, ‘how can anyone enjoy sleeping with different partners in one day?’

Men usually feel empty and ashamed after sex with a SW and they usually take this out by beating their partners. As a result of violence against SW, some women in Gweru formed a Prostitutes’ Association whose goal is to protect their members from violence; prevent quarrels among themselves; persuade young schoolgirls from becoming SW and co-ordinate with a senior official who organize parties for the members with good clients. (Please see the story stored on-line at www.ips.org/womenleaders/wom0205c.htm)

Men prefer not to be tied down in wedlock, something that is functional to society and therefore highly regarded, but want to have their cake and eat it too, so that prostitution remains, for them, a vital, invisible yet available institution.

Women still participate very little in making the major decisions about their lives. (For example, although forced marriage is unlawful, many young women are still forced into marriages they don't want).

Many women are still unaware of their legal rights. For example, they are not aware that they can claim maintenance. The property rights of widows and women in unregistered marriages that have broken down, are still very weak, so many widows and divorced women are left destitute.

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