Pragmatic women: negotiating sex work, pregnancy, and parenting in Mysore, South India

Abstract

Persisting inequities in maternal health pose a particular burden for marginalised populations such as sex workers. However, current literature on pregnancy and sex work is limited to mostly quantitative studies focusing on contraception use, unplanned and/or undesired pregnancies and unsafe abortions. Additionally, emphasis has been placed on the prevention, treatment and care of STIs and HIV with less attention accorded to women’s pregnancy desires and implications to work. In this paper, we explore sex workers’ conflicted experiences surrounding pregnancy, parenthood, and work. Forty-six women participated in in-depth interviews as part of a qualitative exploratory study conducted in close collaboration with a sex worker collective in the city of Mysore (South India). Our analysis focuses on women’s pragmatic responses to pregnancy desires, workplace challenges during and after pregnancy, strategies for managing risk and approaches to managing work and childcare. We show that women confront various intersecting challenges with respect to pregnancy and sex work. Women’s complex decision-making balances multiple considerations while highlighting the temporal dimension of pragmatism as women respond not only to the immediacy of an encounter but also in anticipation of a better future.

Keywords:

• Sex work
• pregnancy
• pragmatism
• women
• India

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank all of the community members for their support of this project and for sharing their stories. We also thank all of the team members of Ashodaya Samithi for their tireless work on the project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Funding sources

Funding was provided by the University of Manitoba (Lisa Avery) and a Canada Research Chair (Robert Lorway).