Gysels Marjolein, Pool Robert, Nnalusiba Betty
Medical Research Council Programme on AIDS in Uganda, Entebbe.
Soc Sci Med. 2002 Jan;54(2):179-92. doi: 10.1016/s0277-9536(01)00027-2.
Little is known about the background of commercial sex workers in Africa. This study investigated how women in a trading town on the trans-Africa highway in southwest Uganda become involved in commercial sex work, which factors contribute to their economic success or lack of success, and what effect life trajectories and economic success have on negotiating power and risk behaviour. Over the course of two years detailed life histories of 34 women were collected through recording open, in-depth interviews, the collection of sexual and income and expenditure diaries, visits to the women's native villages, and participant observation. The women share similar disadvantaged backgrounds and this has played a role in their move into commercial sex. They have divergent experiences, however, in their utilisation of opportunities and in the level of success they achieve. They have developed different life styles and a variety of ways of dealing with sexual relationships. Three groups of women were identified: (1) women who work in the back-street bars, have no capital of their own and are almost entirely dependent on selling sex for their livelihood; (2) waitresses in the bars along the main road who engage in a more institutionalised kind of commercial sex, often mediated by middlemen and (3) the more successful entrepreneurs who earn money from their own bars as well as from commercial sex. The three groups had different risk profiles. Due partly to their financial independence from men, women in the latter group have taken control of sexual relationships and can negotiate good sexual deals for themselves, both financially and in terms of safe sex. The poorer women were more vulnerable and less able to negotiate safer sex. A disadvantaged background and restricted access to economic resources are the major reasons for women gravitating to commercial sex work. Various aspects of personality play a role in utilising income from commercial sex to set up an economic basis that then makes the selling of sex unnecessary. This has implications for interventions, and part of the longer-term solution should lie in improving the economic position of women vis-à-vis men.
人们对非洲商业性工作者的背景了解甚少。本研究调查了乌干达西南部沿跨非洲高速公路的一个贸易城镇中的女性是如何涉足商业性工作的，哪些因素促成了她们在经济上的成功或失败，以及生活轨迹和经济上的成功对她们的谈判能力和风险行为有何影响。在两年时间里，通过记录开放式的深度访谈、收集性及收入与支出日记、走访这些女性的家乡村庄以及参与观察，收集了34名女性详细的生活史。这些女性有着相似的弱势背景，这在她们转向商业性工作中起到了一定作用。然而，她们在利用机会以及所取得的成功程度方面有着不同的经历。她们形成了不同的生活方式以及处理性关系的多种方式。研究确定了三类女性：（1）在后街酒吧工作、没有自己的资本且几乎完全依靠出卖性服务为生的女性；（2）主干道沿线酒吧的女服务员，她们从事一种更制度化的商业性工作，通常由中间人牵线；（3）较为成功的企业家，她们从自己的酒吧以及商业性工作中赚钱。这三类女性有着不同的风险状况。后一类女性部分由于在经济上不依赖男性，因而能够掌控性关系，并且在经济和安全性行为方面都能为自己谈成良好的性交易。较贫困的女性更脆弱，也更没有能力就更安全的性行为进行谈判。弱势背景和获取经济资源的机会受限是女性投身商业性工作的主要原因。个性的各个方面在利用商业性工作收入建立经济基础从而不再需要出卖性方面发挥着作用。这对干预措施具有启示意义，长期解决方案的一部分应在于改善女性相对于男性的经济地位。
