Introduction

Prostitution is not a world apart. It is bound up with wider social processes and permeated by assumptions current in society at large. One of the most significant aspects of contemporary heterosexual prostitution is that as prostitutes, women are grappling with their disadvantaged social position in the context of a capitalist society. Involvement in prostitution can bring comparatively substantial financial returns. There are also the attractions of its compatibility with the demands of childcare and domestic labour - still seen primarily as women’s work. The situation of prostitutes also provides a specific example of the way in which the law can discriminate against certain groups as bearing sole responsibility for various forms of “social blight”. The lesson from prostitutes’ campaigns is that law reform is a necessary but insufficient basis for securing humane social conditions.