The University of Leicester has introduced a student sex work policy and two toolkits (one for staff and one for students) and has obtained funding from the ESRC to roll them out to universities across the UK.

These documents claim to be aimed at supporting “students who are sex workers” but they read more like a guide to getting into the sex trade and fail to provide substantial support for students in difficulties.

Picture this: a young female student is being coerced into the sex industry by her boyfriend to fund his drug habit. She turns to the toolkit for advice but there’s no guidance about protecting herself from coercion and pimping. There’s not even a mention that they are common in the sex trade.

What about a young woman who realises she’s made a terrible mistake and wants to get out? Again, no help whatsoever. The toolkits fail to mention a single organisation whose primary focus is helping women quit the sex trade. None of the organisations listed view prostitution as a form of gender-based violence – as both a cause and consequence of the enduring inequality between the sexes – and all favour the full decriminalisation of the industry.

Warnings about the well-documented physical and psychological harms that prostitution causes? Total silence. Signposting to guidance on budgeting, hardship loans and grants, and other employment options? Nothing. Nada. Zilch.

How can this be justified?

Would a toolkit for students who are drug users fail to warn of the potential harms of drug use? Would it exclude any mention of support to quit drugs? Would its list of organisations that help drug users include only those that are lobbying for the full decriminalisation of all drugs? Of course not.

While the documents don’t explicitly promote prostitution as a reasonable response to students struggling to pay their tuition or halls of residence fees, that is the implicit message. By using the “sex work” terminology, the documents frame prostitution as a normal form of work and not as the violation of human rights recognised under international law.

Freedom of information requests have revealed that the university took a very narrow view of the potential impact of the policy and toolkits and considered only the impact on those who are already involved in the sex industry. They did not consider that vulnerable female students might interpret the advice as the university sanctioning involvement in the sex industry as a positive way of paying their halls of residence fees and other university expenses, and that this could lead to more young women entering the sex industry and being harmed within it and further disadvantaged.

The university did not consider other possible consequences of framing the sex industry as a positive option – for example, that male students and staff might interpret this as the university sanctioning the buying of sex and could lead to men increasing or starting sex buying activity. They didn’t consider how this might affect men’s understanding of consent and the impact of this on their intimate partners, and on relationships between men and women generally. This is unforgiveable – particularly as we are currently witnessing an epidemic of male violence against women and girls, especially in universities and colleges.

We maintain that when developing the policy and toolkits, the university neglected its responsibilities under equality law to work to eliminate the disadvantage, discrimination and harassment of women and other protected groups, and to work to improve relations between men and women generally. We maintain that they failed to ask the questions necessary to fulfil their responsibilities as an educational institution or to consult with an appropriate range of different representatives, leading to a narrow and unrepresentative perspective on the sex trade and its implications for students.

We call on the university to revoke the policy and toolkits and to return to the drawing board – this time centring women’s human right to not be prostituted, dehumanised and objectified, and the sex industry’s role in the promotion of dehumanising, objectifying, and sexist practices and behaviour.

We also call on the ESRC to withdraw funding from the project to roll the policy and toolkits out to other institutions.

Further reading

• What’s wrong with the Leicester Student Sex Worker Policy and Toolkit?
• Does the Leicester student ‘sex work’ toolkit comply with equality legislation?
• More misinformation and sex trade expansionist propaganda from the University of Leicester
• The ‘student sex work’ training: supporting students or shameless propaganda? You decide.
• Distorting mirrors: The second Leicester student “sex work” training session
• The Nordic Model Now! Handbook for Universities

Quote on the image

“Call me old fashioned, but I was sold the notion that going to university was supposed to be one of the ways a woman could get as far as she possibly could from ever needing to sell sexual services.” – Grellbunt, Fri 11-Dec-20 16:23:43

This quote is by a Mumsnet user called Grellbunt, which she posted on a Mumsnet thread discussing the University of Leicester toolkit. It is reproduced here with permission.

Supporting organisations – UK

1. Nordic Model Now!
2. Aurora New Dawn
3. Campaign Against Porn Robots
4. CEASE UK
5. The Cross-Party Group for Commercial Sexual Exploitation in the Scottish Parliament
6. FiLiA
7. For Women Scotland
8. INSPIRE VAWDASV Consultancy & Training
9. The Judith Trust
10. London Feminist Network
11. Manchester Feminist Network
12. Men At Work CIC
13. Merched Cymru
14. Northern Radfem Network
15. Not Buying It
16. Not for Sale in Scotland
17. Object
18. Radfem Collective
19. Rooms of our Own
20. Scary Little Girls CIC
21. Swansea Feminist Network
22. White Ribbon UK
23. Women@thewell
24. Yes Matters

Supporting organisations – International

1. 1000 opportunities/1000 Möjligheter (Sweden)
2. Anti Pornography and Prostitution Research Group (Japan)
3. Associazione Iroko (Italy)
4. Association Mémoire Traumatique et Vitimologie (France)
5. The Avery Center (USA)
6. Bulgarian platform - EWL (Bulgaria)
7. Center Against Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Lithuania)
8. Centre for Women War Victims - ROSA (Croatia)
9. Coalition against Trafficking in Women Australia
10. Comisión para la Investigación de Malos Tratos a Mujeres (Spain)
11. Defend Dignity (Canada)
12. DA:NCE(dance awareness: no child exploited) (USA)
13. Embrace Dignity (South Africa)
14. End Demand Switzerland
15. The EPIK Project (USA)
16. EWAASI (Edmonton Women and Allies Against the Sex Industry) (Canada)
17. Femmes pour le Dire, Femmes pour Agir (France)
18. Fondation Scelles (France)
19. Greek League for Women's Rights (Greece)
20. Hungarian Women's Lobby (Hungary)
21. initiative feministe euromed IFE-EFI (France)
22. Initiative STOPP SEXKAUF (Austria)
23. International Centre on Sexual Exploitation
24. Italian Coordination of the European Women's Lobby (Italy)
25. KAVOD (Austria)
26. Klaipeda Social and Psychological Support Centre (Lithuania)
27. La Coalición Regional contra el Tráfico de Mujeres y Niñas en América Latina y el Caribe (CATWLAC)
28. Le Monde selon les femmes (Belgium)
29. Libres MarianneS (France)
30. Lo omdot meneged – assisting women in the cycle of prostitution (Israel)
31. Lobby Europeo de Mujeres en España-LEM España (Spain)
32. Maisha e.V.-African Women in Germany
33. Malta Women's Lobby
34. Mediterranean Institute of Gender Studies (Cyprus)
35. Missing Persons’ Families Support Centre (Lithuania)
36. Myth – Life after prostitution (Israel)
37. Network of East-West Women, Poland
38. NMI (Israel)
39. Observatoire féministe des violences faites aux femmes (Belgium)
40. People Serving Girls at Risk (Malawi)
41. Perla Organization (Switzerland)
42. Persons Against Non-State Torture (NST) (Canada)
43. Portuguese Platform for Women's Rights (Portugal)
44. Realstars (Sweden)
45. Regards de femmes (France)
46. Resistenza Femminista (Italy)
47. Réussir l'égalité Femmes-Hommes (France)
48. SERP - The Sexual Exploitation Research Programme, University College Dublin (Ireland)
49. Sexual Violence Centre Cork (Ireland)
50. Society Kljuc - centre for fight against trafficking in human beings (Slovenia)
51. SOLWODI Deutschland e.V. (Germany)
52. TERRE DES FEMMES - Menschenrechte für die Frau e. V. (Germany)
53. TFHT – Task Force on Human Trafficking and Prostitution (Israel)
54. Todaa (Israel)
55. Trauma & Prostitution (Germany)
56. Turning Point Counselling (Canada)
57. Université des Femmes (Belgium)
58. Vancouver Collective Against Sexual Exploitation (VCASE) (Canada)
59. Victorian Women's Guild (Australia) 
60. Women’s Museum in Moscow (Russia)
61. Women's Network of Croatia
62. Women’s Space Vancouver (Canada)

If you would like to add your organisation’s name to this list, please email: nordicmodelnow@gmail.com.