Understanding how vulnerable women engage the state through participation: Advocating for sex workers’ rights in Cape Town
Abstract
In recent years, the unequal distribution of citizens’ rights and benefits for women in the sex
work industry has become a major political and social issue in South Africa. This mini-thesis
argues that women in this industry are differently oppressed according to race and class.
This is done through a specific case study of the Sex Workers’ Education and Advocacy
Taskforce (SWEAT), a non-governmental organization based in Observatory, Cape Town.
The thesis explores (i) the perceptions of sex workers on how sex work is commonly
understood in gendered, racial and class terms, (ii) how this affects their lives, especially
their rights as citizens, and (iii) what they do to address these challenges and to (re)claim
their positions in society.