This master’s thesis studies the notions of motherhood and intimate relationship among female sex workers in Slovenia. The identity of a sex worker as a mother and a partner does not fit the socially proposed feminine ideal, which poses new challenges in terms of finding balance between different social roles. In the theoretical introduction, sex work is introduced in a wider socio-political context, presenting various regulatory practices, as well as different views and positions towards sex work. Furthermore, the thesis focuses on explaining the social-constructionist background of various social and gender roles, emphasizing the role of a mother. A combined research approach along with the methodological triangulation was used in order to discover how sex workers define these roles; how they manage the coexistence of the roles of a mother, a partner, and a sex worker; and what kind of coping strategies they develop in order to successfully balance the different areas of their lives. The sample comprised 22 sex workers and 4 professionals from different governmental and non-governmental social welfare organizations. The findings indicate that maintaining an intimate relationship while being involved in sex work is way more difficult than managing the coexistence of sex work and motherhood. Therefore, sex workers are more successful in coping with the ambivalence over the roles of a sex worker and a mother. Although their self-evaluation as mothers and partners is distinctively positive, they have to develop different coping strategies in order to manage different social roles.
|
