A Gender Integrative Approach to the Anti-CSEC Movement

• In Event: 474 - Section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 09. Intersectionality and Social Movements

Abstract

Human trafficking scholars are beginning to highlight the ways social, political, and economic forces interact to influence anti-trafficking activism. Previous research has accounted for how carceral politics, white supremacy, and the neo-liberal global economy have shaped campaigns against trafficking. However, there are still movement dynamics that require further investigation. Drawing on 48 in-depth interviews and over a year of participant observation with anti-CSEC (Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children) activists in the state of Georgia, this paper argues gender functions at an institutional and interactional level to shape anti-CSEC activism. First, the types of workers exploited youth come in contact with operate within highly segregated occupations. Second, the organizational structure of anti-CSEC organizations allows for “family friendly” work policies that provide flexible work hours and emotionally and socially supportive work environments creating opportunities for women to work and volunteer. Finally, a gender essentialist ideology permeated activists’ beliefs about anti-CSEC activism. These institutional and interactional gendered processes reinforced one another to structure anti-CSEC activism and, in the process, reproduce gender difference.

Author

• Taylor Houston, Mount Mercy University