Making Sex Work A Failed Experiment with Legalised Prostitution

The sex industry is a multi-billion dollar business, and is expanding globally. Trafficking for prostitution is estimated to involve more than two million women and children worldwide each year. Governments around the world are turning to legalisation as a solution to this problem.

Mary Lucille Sullivan is a feminist activist and member of the Australian branch of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women. She lives in Melbourne surrounded by her five daughters and is passionate about creating a space for women to live their lives free of oppression. With her daughters she runs a bookshop in inner Melbourne. She has a PhD in Political Science from the University of Melbourne and is the author of What Happens When Prostitution Becomes Work: An update on legalised prostitution in Australia (2006). She has written two other books on social justice issues, An Australian Pilgrimage: Muslims in Australia from the Seventeenth Century to the Present (1993) and Colony to Community (1997). She is also a contributor to Not For Sale: Feminists Resisting Prostitution and Pornography (2004)Making Sex Work evolved from her PhD in political science at the University of Melbourne. In 2004 she conducted a successful tour in the US lecturing on the negative impact of legalised prostitution. She has conducted similar talks in Britain and Norway.