A Gender Integrative Approach to the Anti-CSEC Movement in Georgia

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 neoliberal 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-Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC) activists in the state of Georgia, this article argues gender functions at an institutional and interactional level to shape anti-CSEC activism. First, the types of workers with whom exploited youth come in contact 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, to reproduce gender difference.