ABSTRACT
This chapter concerns the microsociological level and, in particular, examines women and prostitution. Women's liberation is used as an intellectual point of departure to point out that in situations of economic want, financial independence is often a precondition of liberation for women. It proposes different conditions that push women to engage in this petit-metier, among them a lack of professional qualifications and increasing familial responsibilities, particularly for unmarried women, after a discussion of the terms "prostitution" and "profession". The chapter discusses the nature and income from prostitution in an urban setting, and examines AIDS and prostitution. It outlines the prostitution emerges in Cameroonian society as a petit-metier during times of economic crisis. The chapter initiates a discussion of prostitution as an activity that contributes to the liberation of women from male constraints, in the sense that women acquire freedom of sexual activity and relative financial autonomy through its practice.
