'Women are not seen as human beings' - Sex trade impacts gender equality, study finds

Aspects that participants were keen to dispel are that prostitution helps to lift women out of poverty or that sexual consent is something that can be bought. File picture

“Women – they are not seen as human beings, but more as a product. And the reality is that once you see something as an object as opposed to another human being, it takes away the humanity in women and presents them as that object that can paid for, that can be bought. There is no way a man will see an object as being equal to him, a man.”

That is the conclusion of one migrant support provider who took part in a roundtable discussion on prostitution organised as part a study by the National Women's Council and UCD's Sexual Exploitation Research Programme (SERP).