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Wednesday 11 April 2012 11.00 - 13.00
H-2 LAB14 Social Outcasts and 'Others' in Labour History
Main Building: Forehall
Networks: Labour , Social Inequality Chair: Elise van Nederveen Meerkerk
Organizer: Magaly Rodríguez García Discussant: Elise van Nederveen Meerkerk
Lex Heerma van Voss : Working Girls in World Cities
Prostitutes are to be found throughout history, but they tend to be most visible in a number of towns famous for prostitution (e.g. Nairobi, Johannesburg, New Orleans, Buenos Aires, Shanghai, Bombay, Sydney, Las Vegas, Amsterdam, London and Paris). Prostitution has been practised in a number of labour relations, Prostitutes ... (Show more)
Prostitutes are to be found throughout history, but they tend to be most visible in a number of towns famous for prostitution (e.g. Nairobi, Johannesburg, New Orleans, Buenos Aires, Shanghai, Bombay, Sydney, Las Vegas, Amsterdam, London and Paris). Prostitution has been practised in a number of labour relations, Prostitutes have been wage workers, self-employed, slaves, bonded labourers, and as madams have run small businesses. It is one of the most important occupations in slavery today: the ILO estimated in 2008 that of the victims of trafficking 43 % were exploited sexually, 32 % as labour, and 25 % both. About half of them were minors, and child labour has been a persistent aspect of slavery.

As a prelude to a comparative IISH project, the contribution will look into the development of labour relations within prostitution worldwide and over the past four centuries. The contribution will be based on literature, and no guarantee can be given that all towns mentioned above can be treated (but a smallish collection of relevant literature has been collected). As much as feasible based on the existing literature, an attempt will be made to sketch the development of labour relations in prostitution. Among the factors considered, depending on the available literature, may figure:

a. Push and pull factors
i. Urbanization and industrialization
ii. Proletarization and pauperization
iii. Demographic transition (delayed marriages and family formation)
iv. War and development of garrison towns, naval ports and other male only sites.
v. Women’s economic emancipation: decline or growth of prostitution?
b. Changes of working conditions throughout time and place:
i. In-door; out-door soliciting
ii. Independent work or under protection of madams, pimps or escort agents?
iii. Prostitution during wartimes and near military concentrations in peace times
iv. Prostitution as casual or permanent employment: part- or full-time activity?
v. Relation to other forms of sex work (dancing, stripping, massage) or related professions (masseuse, nightclub hostess)
c. Prostitutes’ social profiles
i. Religious, racial and ethnic backgrounds
ii. Migration
iii. Employment prior or parallel to prostitution
iv. Family situation (married; unmarried; children…)
v. Age structure; temporary or life-long activity?
d. Prostitute/employer/client-relationship:
i. Conditions of compliance and towards clients, employers and/or labour intermediaries (pimps, madams, brothel keepers, escort agents, owners of massage parlours or barber shops…)
ii. Material conditions of subservience imbedded in a wider structure of gendered, economic, class or racial subservience
e. Society and prostitutes
i. (State and non-state) Persecution and violence
ii. State regulation (Show less)

Magaly Rodríguez García : The League of Nations' moral recruitment of women
This paper analyzes the debate on trafficking and policies to combat the recruitment of persons for commercial sex within the Advisory Committee on the Traffic in Women and Children of the League of Nations. The main argument is that the Committee’s governmental and non-governmental representatives engaged in what might be ... (Show more)
This paper analyzes the debate on trafficking and policies to combat the recruitment of persons for commercial sex within the Advisory Committee on the Traffic in Women and Children of the League of Nations. The main argument is that the Committee’s governmental and non-governmental representatives engaged in what might be called a "moral recruitment of women". This form of recruitment had a double purpose: to protect females from prostitution through the provision of "good employment", and to repress intermediaries of prostitution by means of criminalization. Three elements of the Committee’s internal debate and concrete actions will receive special attention: (a) the ideological framework (feminism, social purity, humanitarianism, abolitionism, regulationism and/or class); (b) the gender dynamics (differences of opinion between male and female representatives within the Committee); and (c) the degree of gendering (construction or reinforcement of gender roles and relations). (Show less)

Rik Vercammen : Teaching Work Ethics to Beggars and Vagabonds?
During the 19th century the metaphor of society as a body that could be healthy but was threatened by degeneration gained more and more importance. Those ‘diseases’ -or even ‘plagues’- were seen as destructive forces that could disrupt society. ‘Degeneration’ was the commonly used concept, although it didn’t have a ... (Show more)
During the 19th century the metaphor of society as a body that could be healthy but was threatened by degeneration gained more and more importance. Those ‘diseases’ -or even ‘plagues’- were seen as destructive forces that could disrupt society. ‘Degeneration’ was the commonly used concept, although it didn’t have a specific and well-defined meaning. It was a broadly used term to indicate a ‘ going backwardness’ of (a part of) the ‘social body’. Particular attention was paid to those people without a fixed place to live and without regular work, who were seen as a serious threat for society. Since the Middle Ages these people were stigmatised as beggars or vagabonds and were made subjects of prosecution. The answer of governments to these so-called beggars or vagabonds was mainly characterised by the erection of ‘correction houses’. At the end of the 19th century policymakers were convinced that they had to intervene more actively.

In an attempt to grasp the issue, the Belgian legislator created a distinction between beggar institutions for 'professional vagrants' on the one hand and refuge centres for 'accidental, unfortunate or less able-bodied vagrants' on the other, as well as a third type of institution: the state benevolent schools (Rijksweldadigheidsscholen) for minors. This breakdown refers to the centuries-old distinction between the 'worthy' and 'unworthy' poor. However, we have thus far observed that within the walls of the institutions themselves further categorizations were applied which were an expression of a specific perception of the populations in question. We investigated which categories were created on the basis of which criteria and which individualized information was considered relevant. These categories were based on a variety of characteristics which had a particulary moral nature. The ‘unwillingness to work’ or even worse ‘lazyness’ were the main ‘accusations’. To ‘cure’ this (and other) ‘diseases’ the inmates were obliged to hard labour. But was their attitude towards work realy that negative as assumed by the officials? Based on the individual files that were kept we found strong indications that this was not the case. The personal letters of the detainees reveal that the willingness to work was very present in their writings. Not only was it a conditio sine qua non to get released on parole but employment also kept them out of these institutions. Places that were not liked to stay longer than absolutely necessery. (Show less)



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