Abstract
It is frequently assumed that the expansion of occupational health and safety provisions to all workers is a ‘good thing’. This chapter challenges that view, raising important questions about the wider discourses employed to analyse and interpret HIV/AIDS risks in the workplace. The examples of care work and sex work are used to explore the different ways in which these risks are constructed depending on who is doing the defining and whose risks are being defined. In the case of sex work in particular, its status as a ‘non-occupation’ and the moral opprobrium attached to those who carry it out, have led to increased risk of HIV infection among what is often a particularly disadvantaged group of women. The implications of this for mainstream health and safety, health promotion and HIV/AIDS work requires careful consideration and critical reflection on current practices.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Abercrombie, N., Warde, A., Soothill, K., Urry, J. and Walby, S. (1994) Contemporary British Society, 2nd edn. Cambridge: Polity.
ACTUP New York Women and AIDS Book Group (eds) (1990) Women, AIDS and Activism. Boston: South End Press.
Adkins, L. (1995) Gendered Work: Sexuality, Family and the Labour Market. Buckingham: Open University Press.
Barnard, M. and McKeganey, N. (1996) ‘Prostitution and peer education: beyond HIV’ in T. Rhodes and R. Hartnoll (eds), AIDS, Drugs and Prevention: Perspectives on Individual and Community Action. London: Routledge.
Berer, M. (with Ray, S.) (eds) (1993) Women and HIV/AIDS: An International Resource Book. London: Pandora.
Bloor, M.J., Barnard, M.A., Finlay, A. and McKeganey, N.P. (1991) ‘HIV-related risk practices among Glasgow male prostitutes’. Paper presented to the Annual Conference of the British Sociological Association, Manchester.
Boffin, T. and Gupta, S. (eds) (1990) Ecstatic Antibodies: Resisting the AIDS Mythology. London: Rivers Oram.
Boseley, S. (1997) ‘HIV doctor denies misconduct’, The Guardian, 11 March, 4.
Brandt, A. (1987) No Magic Bullet: A Social History of Venereal Disease in the United States since 1880. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Centers for Disease Control (1985) Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 5 November.
Cockburn, C. (1983) Brothers: Male Dominance and Technological Change. London: Pluto.
Cockburn, C. (1985) Machinery of Dominance: Women, Men and Technical Know-How. London: Pluto.
Cockburn, C. (1987a) Women, Trade Unions and Political Parties. London: Fabian Society.
Cockburn, C. (1987b) Two-Track Training: Sex Inequalities and the YTS. London: Macmillan.
DeVita, V.T., Hellman, S. and Rosenberg, S.A. (1988) AIDS: Etiology, Diagnosis, Treatment and Prevention. Philadelphia: Lippincott.
Dowling, S. (1994) ‘Women have feelings too: the mental health needs of women living with HIV infection’ in L. Doyal, J. Naidoo and T. Wilton (eds), AIDS: Setting a Feminist Agenda. London: Taylor & Francis.
Doyal, L. (1995) What Makes Women Sick: Gender and the Political Economy of Health. London: Macmillan.
Foucault, M. (1979) Discipline and Punish. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Fox, N. (1993) Postmodernism, Sociology and Health. Buckingham: Open University Press.
Galbally, R. (ed.) (1997) VicHealth Letter, Issue 6, March.
Giddens, A. (1997) Sociology, 3rd edn. Cambridge: Polity.
Gilman, S. (1995) Health and Illness: Images of Difference. London: Reaktion.
Goss, D. and Adam-Smith, D. (1996) ‘HIV/AIDS and employment: a radical critique’ Critical Social Policy, 16 (48): 77–94.
Graham, H. (1993) Hardship and Health in Women’s Lives. London: Harvester Wheatsheaf.
Grover, J.Z. (1989) ‘Constitutional symptoms’ in E. Carter and S. Watney (eds) Taking Liberties: AIDS and Cultural Politics. London: Serpent’s Tail.
Hobson, B.M. (1987) Uneasy Virtue: The Politics of Prostitution and the American Reform Tradition. New York: Basic Books.
Hussey, J. (1996) Employment and AIDS: A Review of the Companies Act Business Charter on HIV and AIDS. London: National AIDS Trust.
Karim, O.A., Karim, S.S.A., Soldan, K. and Zondi, M. (1993) ‘Sex work, power and risk of HIV infection’. Unpublished paper, Medical Research Council, South Africa.
Kilpatrick, A. and Kilpatrick, D. (1987) AIDS. Edinburgh: Chambers.
Land, H. (1991) ‘Time to care’ in M. Maclean and D. Groves (eds), Women’s Issues in Social Policy. London: Routledge.
Leonard, Z. and Thistlethwaite, P. (1990) ‘Prostitution and HIV infection’ in ACTUP New York Women and AIDS Book Group (eds), Women, AIDS and Activism. Boston: South End Press.
Lupton, D. (1995) The Imperative of Health: Public Health and the Regulated Body. London: Sage.
Malos, E. (1996) The Politics of Housework, 2nd edn. Cheltenham: New Clarion Press.
Manchester AIDSLINE Women’s Group (n.d.) HIV/AIDS and the Under Fives: A Guide for Workers and Carers. Manchester: Manchester AIDSLINE.
Martin, E. (1987) The Woman in the Body: A Cultural Analysis of Reproduction. Buckingham: Open University Press.
Messing, K., Dumais, L. and Romito, P. (1993) ‘Prostitutes and chimney sweeps both have problems: towards full integration of both sexes in the study of occupational health’, Social Science and Medicine, 36 (1): 47–55.
Panos Institute (1990) Triple Jeopardy: Women and AIDS. London: Panos.
Pateman, C. (1988) The Sexual Contract. Cambridge: Polity.
Patton, C. (1994) Last Served? Gendering the HIV Pandemic. London: Taylor & Francis.
Pyett, P. and Warr, D. (1996) ‘When “gut instinct” is not enough: women at risk in sex work’. Report to the Community: Melbourne, Centre for the Study of Sexually Transmissible Diseases, La Trobe University.
Pyett, P. and Warr, D. (1997) ‘Vulnerability on the streets: female sex workers and HIV risk’, AIDS Care.
Richardson, D. (1989) Women and the AIDS Crisis, 2nd edn. London: Pandora.
Scambler, G. and Scambler, A. (1995) ‘Social change and health promotion among women sex workers in London’, Health Promotion International, 10 (1): 17–24.
Terry, J. and Urla, J. (eds) (1995) Deviant Bodies: Critical Perspectives on Difference in Science and Popular Culture. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Treichler, P. (1988) AIDS, gender and biomedical discourse: current contests for meaning’ in E. Fee and D. Fox (eds), AIDS: The Burdens of History. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Turner, B. (1995) Medical Power and Social Knowledge. London: Sage.
Venema, P.U. and Visser, J. (1990) ‘Safer prostitution: a new approach in Holland’ in M. Plant (ed.) AIDS, Drugs and Prostitution. London: Routledge.
Waldby, C. (1996) AIDS and the Body Politic: Biomedicine and Sexual Difference. London: Routledge.
Wells, J. (1982) A Herstory of Prostitution in Western Europe. Berkeley: Shameless Hussy Press.
White, S. (1991) Political Theory and Postmodernism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Whittaker, D. and Hart, G. (1996) ‘Research note: managing risks: the social organisation of indoor sex work’, Sociology of Health and Illness, 18 (3): 399–414.
Wilson, J. (1993) ‘Women as carers, Scotland’ in M. Berer (with S. Ray) (eds), Women and HIV/ AIDS: An International Resource Book. London: Pandora.
Wilton, T. (1992) Antibody Politic: AIDS and Society. Cheltenham: New Clarion.
Wilton, T. (1997) En/Gendering AIDS: Deconstructing Sex, Texts, Epidemic. London: Sage.
Editor information
Copyright information
© 1999 Tamsin Wilton
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Wilton, T. (1999). Selling Sex, Giving Care:The Construction of AIDS as a Workplace Hazard. In: Daykin, N., Doyal, L. (eds) Health and Work. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-27625-7_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-27625-7_11
Publisher Name: Palgrave, London
Print ISBN: 978-0-333-69191-5
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-27625-7
eBook Packages: Palgrave Social & Cultural Studies CollectionSocial Sciences (R0)