Although this book is not about how people leave sex industries and instead how they maintain employment relations between the sex industry and mainstream markets, a brief review of ‘exit’ research is warranted. This will highlight some of the factors identified among mostly streetbased sex workers and will problematise in/out binary frameworks as embodied by contributors to this book. This will be followed by a fuller exploration of sex working within and alongside mainstream precarious labour markets. In doing so I highlight motivations for duality as the drivers that influence and orient us all in our approaches to work in markets that are increasingly shaped by corporate interests. This chapter will end with a presentation of the Continuum of SIWSQ Involvement as a framework to understand (sex) work and transition and to situate duality within our culture of capitalism.

In or out?

Much of the literature on ‘exiting’ is based in role transition theory and cites former nun Helen Rose Fuchs Ebaugh (1988) who theorised a staged process of change where people change careers, move from contemplation and exploration to planning and execution, but never fully let go of elements of former roles because they may struggle with eliminating residual social labels. Several past studies on sex working populations (Potterat et al, 1998; Månsson and Hedin, 1999; Hedin and Månsson, 2004; Dalla, 2006; Sanders, 2007; Mcnaughton and Sanders, 2007; Baker et al, 2010; O’Neill et al, 2010; Matthews et al, 2014) interpret sex work as harm and as exploitation such that a failure to leave is hinged to personal characteristics or a combination of will and access to resources, as well as many structural issues. Factors that influence one's ability to leave sex work include: money woes; drug addiction; holding a criminal record; age; violence; type of sex work; location of sex work; the length of time involved in the industry; health issues; pregnancy; challenges with managing internalised stigma; motivation; frustrations dealing with clients; and the existence of or lack of supportive relationships, to name a few. Some researchers note that sex workers have incomplete role transitions because they fail to let go of aspects of sex work while moving on to more ‘acceptable’ labour and highlight the need for supportive relationships and therapeutic interventions to heal from childhood trauma and subsequent sex work involvement (Månsson and Hedin, 1999; Hedin and Månsson, 2004; Baker et al, 2010).