Select your language
Release of “Last Girl First! Prostitution at the intersection of sex, race and class-based dominations"
22 March 2022© Illustrations by Hanifa Abdul Hameed
CAP International has published a study on the over-representation of the most marginalised women and girls in prostitution.
On 22 March, CAP International published "Last Girl First! Prostitution at the intersection of sex, race and class-based dominations", a wide-ranging study of the prostitution system and its impact on the most marginalised. The research, the fruit of two years' work in 49 countries, gives the floor to more than 40 survivors and experts in the field, and draws on more than 500 sources. It explores a visible reality that has long been ignored: the prostitution system has a disproportionate impact on the most vulnerable in our societies.
The most marginalised women are the first victims
More than 50% of people living in Western Canada are Aboriginal women, who represent 4% of the country's total population.
Over 70% of persons in prostitution in Europe are migrant women
More than half of the victims of sexual exploitation in the United States are African-American girls, even though the community represents only 13% of the country's total population.
Women in poverty, Indigenous women, migrant women or women from ethnic, racial or religious minorities or oppressed castes: they are disproportionately represented in the prostitution system. Not by choice, but because they are the first to be exposed to poverty, violence, and systemic discrimination. They are the ones whom society designates as "prostituable", as a class apart, who in order to live and survive must respond to male demand for the purchase of sexual acts.
Inspired by the struggles of Gandhi and the ideas of the Indian activist Ambedkar in favour of the annihilation of the caste system, the concept of "Last Girl" (or Antyajaa) coined by the Indian activist Ruchira Gupta, founder of our Indian member association Apne Aap, refers to "the last of the last" - the forgotten of our systems, those deprived of rights. It is these voices that the study places at the heart of its analysis.
An intersectional reading of the prostitution system
The report explores the historical, political and social roots leading to the massive sexual exploitation of the most vulnerable in our societies today. At the intersection of multiple oppressions - patriarchy, racism, colonialism, imperialism, capitalism, class domination, war and militarisation - the prostitution system is far from an individual choice, but rather the fruit of domination, symptomatic of the deepest inequalities in our societies.
"What deeply disturbs us is that we are highly visible and yet ignored, and that there is a real recognition of poverty and sexism in our countries of origin; yet academics describe us as 'migrant sex workers'. It's disturbing that there is a kind of liberal sympathy for Asian women. There is also a much stronger force that is very determined to confirm that the situation we find ourselves in - the sexism, the stereotypes, the violence that is committed against us - is somehow our destiny. Even among people who could be our natural allies, there is a real determination to keep us subordinate"
- Suzanne Jay in Last Girl First!
Why read this report?
To understand the prostitution system in its entirety
To understand the systemic issues of domination and oppression in prostitution
To hear the voices of the first concerned
Watch our trailer
Our contact details
14 rue Mondetour
75001, Paris, France
contact@cap-international.org
Newletters
Subscribe to the CAP Internationnal newsletter