Some Mother’s Daughter: The hidden movement of prostitute women against violence

1 in 4 prostitute women are raped and over half assaulted for being sex workers. As the UK government reviews sexual offences, prostitute women in both the UK and the US publish their proposals to make all women safer.
Violence against sex workers is built into the law and its enforcement. In response, prostitute women (and often their mothers and sisters) have been an important but hidden part of the women’s movement against rape, trafficking and other violence. What they propose for their own safety will make all of us safer. A chronology of prostitutes’ resistance provides a connecting thread.
The book includes:
– A major survey with startling revelations on who prostitute women are, how many are lesbian or bisexual, Black, mothers, how many have been raped, how many have pimps.
– An interview with Theresa Hulme, whose daughter Julie was murdered while working on the streets of Manchester, England, to support her children.
– Accounts from women seeking asylum in Britain from rape and exploitation by pimps backed by government and police.
– First hand accounts of the successful first private prosecution for rape in England brought by two sex workers, and of the protest which got a San Francisco serial rapist convicted.
– Black women’s protest against police inaction and racism in the investigation of murders of women in the Los Angeles Black community.
– The inside story of the San Francisco Task Force on Prostitution which recommended a shift in police priorities by vigorously enforcing laws against rape and other violence, and redirecting the over $7 million spent annually on policing prostitution, to provide resources for sex workers and for the whole community.
– The John School: a diversion from what’s needed.