ABSTRACT
This quotation brings to light the rise of a new idea among feminists of the second wave: that prostitution might be 'a free choice' for some women and that only excesses like trafficking should be combated by governments. This novel idea is now becoming the content of official policy in the Netherlands, creating a position that is relatively rare among states, Victoria in Australia being the only other state to decriminalise some forms of prostitution (Gorjanicyn, Chapter 16 of this volume). It also demonstrates the time-honoured connection between the issues of prostitution and the traffic in women, a linkage already forged in the 1880s by feminists of the 'ftrst wave' and their abolitionist allies, and consolidated in international law.
