Análisis del impacto de la pandemia en el oficio de la prostitución en la ciudad de Cuenca

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic was an event that had an impact on all dimensions of human life, however, its consequences were felt with greater intensity in human groups in conditions of social vulnerability, of which are part the sex workers in the city of Cuenca-Ecuador. This research conducted an analysis of the exercise of prostitution in the city and the economic, social, labor, family, health and symbolic impacts of the pandemic on women who practice this trade in Cuenca, as well as the strategies deployed by sex workers during the confinement stage, with emphasis on identifying women's access to information and communication technologies for the supply of sexual services. Methodologically, the research was guided by the ethnographic method, the approach was qualitative and the techniques used were: documentary research, direct observation in the spaces and environments where sex work is offered in the city and semi-structured interviews with sex workers and key informants trying to elucidate the subjective interpretation that they give to their work. The results of the research showed that, due to the stigma attached to them, sex workers were one of the sectors made invisible by the State during the pandemic and, furthermore, that this stigma was increased because they were considered a health risk for clients and the general population, which deepened their vulnerability.