We are a coalition between survivors of the sex trade and professionals working in the VAWG sector. We are united in our desire to see better outcomes for women involved in the sex trade because we believe that women deserve more.
We have five recommendations for change.
We are engaging with local and national government to help make the recommendations a reality.
We submitted a Freedom of Information request to understand the current state of support for women involved in prostitution across Local Authority areas.
Only 18% of councils confirmed they commission a dedicated service for women selling sex.
We also wanted to know whether prostitution is recognised as a form of male violence against women. Shockingly, fewer than 10% of areas include services for women in prostitution within their Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) strategies.
Finally, we asked what exit support is available. Despite consistent research showing that 9 in 10 women want to leave prostitution, less than 30% of areas offer any help to support women to exit.
There’s clearly a long way to go.
The Women First project is ready to lead that change—guided by our five recommendations for action.
The inherent harms facing women cannot be ignored and are not limited to women who have been visibly trafficked into the sex trade. We ask local authorities to include within their VAWG strategy services that work with women involved in the sex trade.
Women need to know that they can exit the sex trade. Move-on support should be visible at all points of a woman’s journey.
Women require a specialist service. The sustainability of services should not be dependent upon grants / volunteers. We call upon local authorities to commission and fund services ‒ this includes specific exiting support.
Staff working in services that women may attend (housing / children’s social care / DASV / addiction / sexual health) should receive training about the needs of women in the sex trade.
We need up-to-date statistics about the scale and nature of the sex trade. This includes understanding women’s lived experiences. We ask for investment in research to understand the current landscape, including the online sex trade. We ask that data collection is improved to more effectively measure the impact of interventions upon women’s lives.
“No money is worth what I was going through”
“I was in chaos, my whole life was in chaos, I was just going from one crazy situation to the next crazy situation.”
“Wanted to exit since first day of working…it was so horrendous…it was man after man after man, it was like being raped continuously”
“I’ve become more feminist in my thinking, and I really realise the damage it does”
The number of people involved in prostitution is unknown. Estimates vary between 35,000 – over 100,000, with the majority being women.
What is well known, is the high levels of violence perpetrated against women. Women in prostitution are 18 times more likely to be murdered than the general female population.
Three quarters of women involved in prostitution have experienced violence from men who buy sex. Over half report having been raped or sexually assaulted.
Too often, services that are supporting women, adopt a “harm reduction” approach. This amounts to crisis management—distributing condoms or safety alarms while women remain trapped in systems of exploitation. This is not enough.
We need to go beyond this and offer real exit pathways: properly funded, specialist women’s services, where support is holistic, trauma-informed, and open-ended.
We also need to challenge the narrative that prostitution is a “choice.”
Audit Tool for Local Authorities
Improve your service for women exploited within the sex trade.
We have developed a Women First Audit Tool for local authorities to use to improve their service for women exploited within the sex trade.
We understand that each area is different. Local need and current levels of contact with women will be unique.
The audit is tailored to each area, but will include:
- Mapping of current services / accessibility and pathways
- Understanding practitioner confidence in working with women, including asking the question and supporting women to move on
- Listening to the lived experience of women – survivor led focus groups to ensure women’s voices are heard
- Training for staff
One-Day Training Programme
For professionals supporting women involved in the sex trade.
We have developed a one-day training programme for professionals who may be supporting women who are involved in the sex trade.
It includes:
What is prostitution & commercial sexual exploitation?
- What is happening in the UK?
- Statistical overview
- Prostitution vs sex work
- Different models
- Why is it a MVAWG issue?
- Entry into the industry
- How you can help / what works?
- Exiting Strategies
- & more
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Esther is a sex industry survivor and recovery trainer with a longstanding interest in legal and public policy relating to all forms of violence against women and girls.
She works for Nordic Model Now! and is also involved in supporting the French, grassroots feminist organisation Mouvement du Nid.
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Hannah has worked in the drug and alcohol / women’s sector for over 25 years, working in community and residential services.
Her desire to see an end to the buying and selling of women's bodies led to her being part of the Women's First team.
“I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.” Audre Lorde
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I joined Women First after a volunteer call at FiLiA, driven by my lifelong conviction that prostitution is violence against women and my commitment to support women in exiting it. I want to see women offered real, sustainable routes to exit and live free of violence and exploitation.
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L is a sex trade survivor. She played a pivotal role in the early development of Women First by carrying out a series of interviews with survivors of the sex trade. She has continued to be a valued member of the team.
She is a passionate abolitionist having witnessed first-hand the harm inflicted upon women within the sex trade.
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I have always been interested in issues that affect women but during the last few years I have become better informed about issues that affect women particularly in relation to MVAWG, sexual violence and the sex trade and I have spent my time volunteering for FiLiA, You My Sister and now for Women First.
I hope that Women First will play a pivotal role in the current shift in awareness and understanding that has highlighted how all aspects of the sex trade are harmful to women and girls and that paying for sex is a form of sexual violence. We are aware that women involved in the sex trade are not routinely asked if they would like to exit by the services that offer support to prostituted women, and this is at odds with what we know about the harms of the sex trade. If services have a greater understanding of those harms, then Women First can support them to implement improved support and exit services.
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Sally is a volunteer, trustee and the Male Violence Against Women and Girls (MVAWG) lead for FiLiA. She has worked in the MVAWG sector for over 35 years in the local, national, and international arena. Her experience has included service development and management. She developed the first health based domestic abuse advocate service and one of the first domestic and sexual abuse advocate services in the UK. She is very proud to be part of the Women First team.
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You My Sister supports survivors of the porn & sex industries, helping women recover and self-manage their own mental health. All of our work is created with these lived experience experts.
We are acutely aware of the overwhelming harm of the sex trade and the overwhelming need of 90% in it to get out, immediately. We want to
We bring the vitally important insight from the many women we work with.
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A is an anonymous survivor of the sex trade. Since exiting the sex trade, she has used her experience to try to raise awareness of the harms inflicted upon women involved in it.
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I have 30yrs experience of working in the MVAWG sector, 25yrs of those working as a specialist MVAWG social worker, with a passion and dedication for justice for women. I am an experienced trainer and love to show people new ways of thinking and doing when it comes to working with women.
After years of working in the MVAWG sector, it was obvious that support for women in the sex industry, especially for those that wanted to exit was non-existent. These women didn’t seem to matter. When I saw FiLiA wanted to work specifically with women in the prostitution I jumped at the chance to make a difference and change the landscape.
I want women to have real choices, to know that a life outside of the sex industry is possible. But mostly, I want prostituted women to be seen as human beings. A woman like every other, with feelings, family, friends and a future.
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J is a survivor of the sex trade. She has lived experiences of involvement in brothels, massage parlours, private flats and escort work, alongside addiction to heroin.
In 2024, J was the key witness in a criminal case relating to a historic rape and brutal attack perpetrated against her when she was involved in prostitution. The assailant received a custodial sentence
J now uses her lived experience to speak out about the harms of the sex trade, working in both a paid and voluntary capacity.
We’re turning feminist ideas into action, but we can’t do it alone.
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