British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, St. Paul's Hospital, 608-1081 Burrard Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6Z 1Y6.
Soc Sci Med. 2011 Dec;73(11):1600-7. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.09.015. Epub 2011 Oct 4.
This study explored low-income and transitional housing environments of women sex workers and their role in shaping agency and power in negotiating safety and sexual risk reduction in Vancouver, Canada. A series of 12 focus group discussions were conducted with 73 women currently involved in street-based sex work. These women were purposively sampled for a range of experiences living in low-income housing environments, including homeless shelters, transitional housing, and co-ed and women-only single-room occupancy (SRO) hotels. Drawing on the risk environment framework and theoretical constructs of gender, agency and power, analyses demonstrate that women continue to be vulnerable to violence and sexual and economic exploitation and have reduced ability to negotiate risk reduction resulting from the physical, structural and social environments of current dominant male-centred housing models. Within the physical environment, women described inhabitable housing conditions in SROs with infestations of bedbugs and rats, leading women to even more transitional housing options such as shelters and couch-surfing. In many cases, this resulted in their economic exploitation and increased sexual risk. Within the structural environment, enforcement of curfews and guest policies forced women to accept risky clients to meet curfew, or work outdoors where their ability to negotiate safety and condom use were limited. Certain policies promoted women's agency and mitigated their ability to reduce risks when selling sex. These included flexible curfews and being able to bring clients home. The social environments of co-ed single-room occupancy hotels resulted in repeated violence by male residents and discrimination by male building staff. Women-only shelters and SROs facilitated 'enabling environments' where women developed support systems with other working women that resulted in safer work practices. The narratives expressed in this study reveal the critical need for public health interventions and safer supportive housing to account for the daily lived experiences of women sex workers.
本研究探讨了性工作者的低收入和过渡性住房环境，以及这些环境在塑造她们在加拿大温哥华协商安全和减少性风险方面的能动性和权力所起的作用。本研究采用了一系列的 12 次焦点小组讨论，共涉及 73 名目前从事街头性工作的女性。这些女性是根据在低收入住房环境中（包括无家可归者收容所、过渡性住房、男女混合和女性专用单人房旅馆）的各种生活经验进行了有针对性的抽样。本研究借鉴了风险环境框架和性别、能动性和权力的理论概念，分析结果表明，女性仍然容易受到暴力和性剥削以及经济剥削的影响，并且由于当前以男性为中心的住房模式的物理、结构和社会环境，她们减少了协商降低风险的能力。在物理环境方面，女性描述了单人房旅馆中存在的床虱和老鼠等可居住的住房条件，这导致她们选择更多的过渡性住房选择，如收容所和沙发客。在许多情况下，这导致了她们的经济剥削和性风险增加。在结构环境方面，宵禁和访客政策的执行迫使女性为了遵守宵禁而接受风险客户，或者在户外工作，这限制了她们协商安全和使用安全套的能力。某些政策促进了女性的能动性，并减轻了她们在卖淫时降低风险的能力。这些政策包括灵活的宵禁和能够带客户回家。男女混合的单人房旅馆的社会环境导致了男性居民的反复暴力行为和男性建筑工作人员的歧视。女性专用收容所和单人房旅馆促进了“有利环境”，使女性能够与其他工作女性建立支持系统，从而使工作实践更加安全。本研究中的叙述揭示了公共卫生干预措施和更安全的支持性住房的迫切需求，以考虑性工作者的日常生活经验。
