Abstract
Poverty and income inequality can increase a woman’s decision to engage in risky transactional sex, and may lead to unimaginable harms, such as violence, substance use, and human trafficking. This study examines the facilitators and barriers to finding community and voice among women trading sex in Tijuana, Mexico, and what factors, such as socio-structural support, violence, and substance use, may impact their potential to engage with others, including human service providers. Sixty qualitative in-depth interviews were conducted with women trading sex in Tijuana, Mexico. Researchers met with participants for in-depth-face-to-face structured interviews. Data were coded using ATLAS.ti. Participants were aged 19–73 (mean: 37), 98% were of Mexican nationality, 90% reported trading sex independent of the control of others, with 58% identified as independent and street-based. Thirty percent of women trading sex reported substance use (excluding marijuana) and 20% reported injection drug use within 30 days. The majority reported no involvement in mobilization activities, but 85% expressed interest. However, barriers included stigma, cultural gender norms, partner violence, and privacy in regards to disclosure of sex trade involvement, moral conflict (revealing one’s involvement in sex trade), involvement in substance use, human trafficking, and feeling powerless. Facilitators were having a safe space to meet, peer support, self-esteem, feeling heard, knowledge of rights, economic need to support families, and staying healthy. Findings imply the potential to go beyond mobilizing limited groups of women in the sex trade and instead involve whole community mobilization; that is, to reach and include the more vulnerable women (substance use, trafficked) in supportive services (social services, exit strategies, better healthcare opportunities, and/or education for healthcare providers to help break societal stigmas regarding women in the sex trade) and to change the status of women in society in general.
Highlights
Poverty and income inequalities increase the vulnerabilities in women, which can increase their engagement in risky transactional sex and may lead to unimaginable harms, such as substance use and human trafficking [1,2,3,4]
The results from this study suggest that Tijuana women who trade sex have a clear potential to find community and a voice and motivations to do so; namely to get support, boost self-esteem and self-worth, and reduce vulnerability and harm
Through a whole community mobilization framework, we have explained how women in the sex trade might overcome the isolation and the structural and social conditions that increase their vulnerability to health risks and violence
Summary
Poverty and income inequalities increase the vulnerabilities in women, which can increase their engagement in risky transactional sex and may lead to unimaginable harms, such as substance use and human trafficking [1,2,3,4]. At the Mexico-U.S border, financial need is a major motivation for women to initiate and continue trading sex [5]. In Mexico, less than half of women participate in the formal economy, with the remaining workforce forced to engage in alternative income-generating strategies within the market economy [7]. States [4,7] Most of these migrating women find themselves with few options for employment and financial support with limited job opportunities [5,8]. Some women in Tijuana are drawn into the sex trade because it provides a better living wage to meet their basic needs than other unskilled labor
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