Living With Stigma: Women’s Experiences of Prostitution and Substance Use

Abstract

Interpretive phenomenology was used to analyze interviews with 14 women who were recruited from a Midwestern program that provides prostitution-specific services. The participants described day-to-day experiences living with labeling, violence, and discrimination that were directed at them because of their involvement in prostitution and substance use. They also discussed their perceptions of being altered permanently by their activities as well as the ways in which they resist internalizing the negative messages that were directed at them. In this article, the construct of stigma is used to characterize these experiences. This article details the women’s experience of living with stigma and presents implications for direct practice and policy.