Frances M. Shaver

Sex Work Research: Methodological and Ethical Challenges

The challenges involved in the design of ethical, nonexploitative research projects with sex workers or any other marginalized population are significant. First, the size and boundaries of the population are unknown, making it extremely difficult to get a representative sample. Second, because membership in hidden populations often involves stigmatized or illegal behavior, concerns regarding privacy and confidentiality are paramount and difficult to resolve. In addition, they often result in challenges to the validity of the data. Third, in spite of evidence to the contrary, associations between sex work and victimization are still strong, dichotomies remain prevalent, and sex workers are often represented as a homogeneous population. Drawing on three research projects in which the author has been involved—all grounded in a sex-as-work approach—as well as the work of others, this article provides several strategies for overcoming these challenges. Clear guidelines for ethical, nonexploitive methodologies are embedded in the solutions provided.

Gendered sex work in the San Francisco tenderloin.

The variable “gender” rarely appearsin prostitution research. Its inclusion raises the samequestions brought up with respect to other areas ofwork: Is there a gendered perspective with respect tothe work and are gender inequalities reflected init? This study examines gender differences in the workof 140 sex workers in the San Francisco Tenderloin. Aswell as women and men who are workers, we include transgender workers (genetic males who presentthemselves as women), further accentuating differencesby gender. Looking at work-specific characteristics, wefind that women do not suffer inequities of income. They are, however, more prone tooccupational hazards. Transgenders, who suffer the mostsocietal discrimination, are closer to women than men intheir work situation. Examining the sexuality of sex workers, the women are the least likely toenjoy sex with clients. Men report more sexual enjoymentwith clients and transgenders are closer to the men inthis regard. Few differences are, however, found in sexual pleasure in the personal livesof the women, men, and transgenders. A gender differencethat stands out is that the men have more noncommercialsex partners than the women. Again, transgenders are more like the men, although various aspectsof their condition make for some uniquedifferences.

Managing Risk and Safety on the Job: The Experiences of Canadian Sex Workers.

Abstract This paper reports results from a study of sex work occupations conducted in a large city in Canada that included women, men, and transsexual/transgender (TS/TG) sex workers. Descriptions of work provided by participants (escorts, exotic dancers, masseuses, and street workers) were used to examine how risk and safety were experienced and managed within the Canadian legal context. Three dimensions of the structure of sex work were identified as factors that influenced the management of risk and safety: its location on- or off-street, its organization on an out- or in-call basis, and whether it was conducted independently or for a club, massage parlor or escort agency. Gender and perceptions of stigma and risk interacted with these dimensions in such a way that men, women and TS/TG workers experienced and managed risk and safety differently.

Swedish or American heterosexual college youth: Who is more permissive?

Theories of human sexuality have proposed that two factors reduce the double standard of sexuality and lead to a convergence of male and female sexual behavior: the degree of social benefits and amount of power women have in basic societal institutions and the extent to which a society accepts permissive sexual norms. As these factors increase, the strength of the double standard will decrease and the convergence between male and female behaviors will increase. Compared to the United States, Sweden has instituted more policies to promote gender equality and has been thought to accept more permissive premarital sexual attitudes. The focus of the research reported here is to examine country and gender differences in sexual attitudes and sexual behavior for a sample of university students in the United States (N = 407) and Sweden (N = 570). Results indicate that Swedish students endorsed more similar sexual standards for women and men and reported more accepting attitudes than did American students. For sexual behavior, American men reported the most sexual experience, Swedish men the least, with the women of both countries generally in the middle category. Notwithstanding this more permissive behavior on the part of American men, gender convergence with respect to sexual behavior is stronger in Sweden on several of the dimensions examined: age of first engaging in partner-related sexual activities for those who were sexually experienced, relationship with first partner, number of partners both in the last year and in their lifetime, and affective reactions to first coitus. Gender convergence, however, is weaker in Sweden than in the United States with respect to the incidence and frequency of various sexual activities and the degree of satisfaction with current sex life. Findings are discussed with respect to the questions they raise about the current theories that framed this research and the differential amount of sex education provided in the two countries.

The Regulation of Prostitution: Avoiding the Morality Traps.

There are three types of sexual moralism in evidence in the discussions regarding the regulation of prostitution: the overt moral fervour of the Victorian crusaders, the more covert moralism of contemporary crusaders (residents) and legislators, and the principled moralism of contemporary radical feminism. It is maintained—using arguments and evidence from the authors own and other Canadian research—that each type has contributed heavily to the failure to adequately evaluate the nature of sex work. As a consequence, our ability to develop appropriate social and legal policies has been severely restricted. It is argued that the key to appropriate social and legal reform lies in recognizing four points: prostitution per se is not different from other work; prostitution as currently practised is different; the evaluation of commercial sex must be conducted in the broader context of human sexuality; and it is essential to focus on the specificity of women, rather than the specificity of prostitution.

Sociocultural correlates of permissive sexual attitudes: A test of Reiss's hypotheses about Sweden and the United States

In a 1980 publication, Ira Reiss proposed a set of theoretical statements concerning gender roles and sexual customs in Sweden and the United States. He stated that, in comparison to the United States, sexual attitudes are more permissive in Sweden and that factors accounting for these differences include country variations in religiosity and attitudes toward general gender egalitarianism, the naturalism of sex, and the role of government with respect to sexual matters. The present research tests the extent to which Reisss descriptions are currently supported. For this purpose, a questionnaire was designed and data was collected from heterosexual university students in these two countries. Support was found for many of Reisss descriptions, and explanations for the exceptions are presented.

Women, work and the evolution of agriculture∗☆

Abstract In this article, the author differentiates the key elements in the development of agricultural production in Quebec and Canada in the last four decades (that is, the modernization of agriculture and the development of capitalist relations of production) and then tests the relative strength of each for producing change in womens participation level. Data were collected during a year of fieldwork in a small Quebec parish and consist of semi-structured interviews with the adult members of 63 randomly selected farm families. The findings indicate that neither the development of capitalist agriculture nor the adoption of modern methods have an independent effect on womens contribution. It is the interaction effect between the two that produces the greatest variation in the type and amount of work women devote to farming.

Managing Conflict: An Examination of Three-Way Alliances in Canadian Escort and Massage Businesses

Weitzer (2009) notes that the sex work employment triangle involves three groups: workers, clients, and various third parties; the latter includes pimps, facilitators, brokers, managers, and others who help organize or facilitate sex work. Our research focuses on the third group, and in particular on managers who work in legal or licensed sex industry businesses. We gathered data in 2013 from 43 managers of escort agency and massage parlor businesses in five Canadian census metropolitan areas. Following Weitzer’s (2009) recommendation, managers were interviewed as part of larger study that included people who sell and who purchase sexual services. We argue that one central responsibility of managers is to prevent and intercede in conflicts between workers and clients, as well as between workers, and that managers play an important role in the occupational health and safety of sex industry populations. These findings make a novel contribution to the sociology of service work literature; they are also important in the context of recent legal changes in Canada which made commercial-sex businesses and third-party material benefits from them, illegal.