The Traffic in Women

The Traffic in Women by Emma Goldman

Emma Goldman's essay "The Traffic in Women" argues that the "white slave traffic" scandal suddenly seized upon by reformers, newspapers, and lawmakers is not a new discovery but a manufactured moral panic that distracts the public from the deeper social wrong of economic exploitation, while creating lucrative jobs for inspectors, investigators, and detectives. Goldman contends that the true cause of prostitution among white, yellow, and black women alike is capitalism's exploitation of underpaid female labor, citing figures showing that in New York City one in ten women works in a factory, earning an average of six dollars a week for forty-eight to sixty hours of labor, with frequent idleness reducing annual earnings to about $280. She praises Reginald Wright Kauffman's novel THE HOUSE OF BONDAGE as a rare honest treatment of the issue, showing that the industrial system leaves working-class women little alternative to prostitution, and argues that because women everywhere are valued as sex objects rather than for their work, selling sexual favors to one man or many is merely a difference of degree. She marshals authorities including Dr. Sanger (whose study of 2,000 prostitutes found most were poor working women, with 490 married), Dr. Alfred Blaschko, and Havelock Ellis to support the economic explanation, while also tracing prostitution's origins to religious custom—citing Herodotus's account of the Temple of Mylitta, temple hierodules at Corinth, and the tolerance and profiteering of the Christian Church, including Pope Clement II and Pope Sixtus IV. Beyond economics, Goldman identifies a second major cause: enforced sexual ignorance and a double standard of morality that permits male sexual experience while condemning female sexuality, especially among girls working in overheated factories who have no wholesome outlet for social or sexual life. She argues society, not the girl, is responsible for the "first step" into prostitution, and that the prostitute is treated as permanently fallen while men who patronize brothels face no censure—she cites Havelock Ellis's claim that fully fifty percent of married men patronize brothels, spreading venereal disease to wives and children, and quotes Ellis's comparison of the mercenary wife to a "scab" worse off than the prostitute. She quotes a former brothel-keeper's memoir describing monthly police fines extracted from her and her girls, arguing police graft profits directly from prostitution while offering no protection. Goldman disputes claims that white slaves are mainly imported from Europe, arguing most New York prostitutes are Americanized in speech and habit, driven into the trade by American conditions and the demand for costly finery. She cites Clifford G. Roe's charge that New England girls were shipped to Panama for the use of men employed by the U.S. government, and James Bronson Reynolds's finding that Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Yokohama were centers of American vice such that "American girl" became synonymous with prostitute there. She specifically rejects the claim that Jewish girls are commonly imported for prostitution, arguing Jewish psychology and family ties make unaccompanied migration implausible. She also addresses the cadet (pimp) system, arguing it emerged after 1894 as an unintended consequence of anti-vice crusades: driving brothels underground exposed women directly to police extortion, leaving them to seek protection from cadets. She holds the cadet no more culpable than the police officer, department-store owner, or factory owner who profits from underpaid female labor. Citing Dr. Blaschko and Havelock Ellis, including the example of Charles IX's 1560 edict abolishing French brothels (which only multiplied and hid them), she concludes that legislative suppression consistently worsens conditions. The essay closes by calling for educated public opinion that treats the prostitute as a product of social conditions rather than a moral pariah, and states that only a "complete transvaluation of all accepted values" together with the abolition of industrial slavery could truly eradicate prostitution.

By Emma Goldman · First published 1911 · Genre: Social Critique, Feminist Literature, Political Commentary · 5,427 words

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Our reformers have suddenly made a great discovery -- the white slave traffic. The papers are full of these "unheard of conditions," and lawmakers are already planning a new set of laws to check the horror.

It is significant that whenever the public mind is to be diverted from a great social wrong, a crusade is inaugurated against indecency, gambling, saloons, etc. And what is the result of such crusades? Gambling is increasing, saloons are doing a lively business through back entrances, prostitution is at its height, and the system of pimps and cadets is but aggravated.

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Feminism · Anarchism · Social Criticism · Gender Roles · Prostitution · Marriage · Patriarchy · Women's Rights · Sexuality · Exploitation · Capitalism · Labor Movement

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