The Case for Change: Exiting Prostitution
FiLiA Presents its Women First Toolkit
By Sally Jackson FiLiA Volunteer & Trustee @Blackbox666
At the FiLiA conference in Cardiff this year, FiLiA was pleased to share work (supported by Network for Social Change) it has co-produced to assist local authorities in their provision of support for women involved in prostitution. During lockdown, FiLiA noticed reports from different areas framing prostitution as anti-social behaviour or a neighbourhood problem. There was a lack of focus on the issues for, and the harm experienced by, the women affected by it.
FiLiA wrote to any area we saw mentioned in the press and offered another way of working. Initially we were contacted by Plymouth and were impressed by the proactive way in which their local partnership agencies came together to improve the offer to women locally. Built from that learning, a small group of exited women and professionals working to end male violence against women have co-produced a toolkit to support other areas improve their response. Several local areas have already expressed an interest.
We know that prostitution is inherently violent and abusive and a form of violence against women that is both a cause and symptom of sex inequality. The term ‘Sex Work’ legitimises the buying of access to women and girls’ bodies, as many exited women have told us – it’s not sex, and it’s not work. But it is a method used by the sex industry to groom women into thinking prostitution is empowering, and in the current cost of living crisis, even a way out of debt.
Research from Streetlight showed there are around 105,000 individuals in prostitution, and vulnerable and disadvantaged women are disproportionately overrepresented in these statistics. Although 9 out of 10 women want to exit, there is a striking lack of exit pathways open to women.
There is no single route into prostitution, rather there is a web of complex, multi-faceted social factors that can lead women into the sex industry. There is a strong correlation with homelessness, sexual abuse, violence at home, runaways, drug use, time in care, poverty, debt, and poor education. As well as drawing individuals into the sex industry, these social factors can also be significant barriers to exiting.
We pay tribute to work such as the 2004 Paying the Price consultation and Eaves’ Breaking Down the Barriers study and all the sisters before us whose knowledge has informed our work.
We asked the question what is the ambition and aspiration in your area for women involved in prostitution? This showed a shocking lack of ambition and many areas adopting a ‘harm reduction’ approach, without any opportunities to exit. We wanted to find out what would be most useful and so asked the experts. FiLiA has a global group of survivors of the sex industries and asked our UK women to assist us, giving us well over 100 years of experience of working in the sex trade, including on-street, escort, sugar daddy and brothel work. The experiences were different but many of the themes were similar.
We gathered powerful learning and quotes from the women –
“No money is worth what I was going through.”
“It is important…that you say to her, you explicitly say to her, ‘do you want help to get out? We can help you get out’. That needs to be said.”
From this learning it was clear in developing Women First that it must:
Be Survivor led - interviews with women on our team who have exited informed us what helped and what the barriers were.
Frame Prostitution as male violence – we will not dilute or sanitise the brutality of the sex trade and its impact upon women.
Work in partnership – we want to support areas to build on existing networks, knowledge, resources, and provision.
Be brave - we want to encourage others to stand up for better support for women
The key focus of the Women First approach is that it is based within the local Violence Against Women Strategy. We work with what the local area is already doing, upskill and share skills between local professionals to improve their response, and invest in training and support for specialist workers to hold the complex work with women who will be experiencing multiple issues to help them find pathways to exit and importantly to believe that they can.
Our Women First team supports local areas by completing a comprehensive review of their current provision, using our bespoke Women First Audit Tool to identify priorities / make recommendations. If needed, we can support volunteer recruitment and development to include training for volunteers – co-designed and delivered by experts by experience. We also provide training for staff working in the wider treatment system, again all co-designed and delivered by experts by experience survivors. We know that partnerships that get this right for women make the best of their limited resources with cost savings in the longer term.
If you would like a copy of our toolkit, or to find out more about what support can be offered to help you improve the provision for women in your area, please get in touch with sally@filia.org.uk. We would love to hear from you and raise the aspirations for the women you work with.