Abstract

Investigations of the mental health of women engaged in sex work in the Global South hardly explore how daily living conditions created by unjust social and systemic structures might be giving rise to distress that is beyond alleviation when only individual coping strategies are used. Consequently, we collaborated with a local community-based organization to conduct a phenomenological grounded theory study of the wellbeing needs of 30 Black women engaged in sex work in Barbados. In this paper, we report on the impoverished and gendered violent daily living conditions, exacerbated by stigma, which manifested as emotional distress for these women. We illustrate how these living conditions, grounded in colonial legacies, neocolonialism and neoliberalism, are beyond the control of the women. We provide recommendations for developing policies and programs in Barbados toward improving these living conditions and ultimately relieving the women’s distress. We suggest key areas for future research with women engaged in sex work in Barbados and similar contexts in the Global South.

摘要

对南半球从事性工作的女性心理健康的调查几乎没有探讨不公正的社会和系统结构所创造的日常生活条件如何导致仅使用个人应对策略时无法缓解的痛苦。因此，我们与当地的一个社区组织合作，对巴巴多斯从事性工作的 30 名黑人女性的幸福需求进行了基于现象学的理论研究。在本文中，我们报告了贫困和性别暴力的日常生活条件，这些条件因污名而加剧，表现为这些女性的情绪困扰。我们说明了这些以殖民遗产、新殖民主义和新自由主义为基础的生活条件如何超出了女性的控制范围。我们为巴巴多斯制定政策和计划以改善这些生活条件并最终减轻妇女的痛苦提供建议。我们建议未来对巴巴多斯从事性工作的女性以及全球南方类似背景下的女性进行研究的关键领域。