Abstract

How does theory meets practice in feminism(s)?

In order to understand the issue of the sexual trafficking of women and the conditions in which the majority of the female population lives, we need to refer to data as those from the UN (2004), according to which around 90 million women reside outside their home origin, representing nearly half of the international immigrant records around the world (ZLOTNIK, 2003). Regarding the year of 2006, the International Labour Organization (ILO) stated that more than 2.4 million forced workers in the whole world were direct victims of the International Trafficking in Human Beings. Out of that percentage, approximately 43% of the trafficked people is used in Commercial Sexual Exploitation and generate global profits over 31 billion dollars per year. Furthermore, In order to show these mappings, the United Nations, through specific Drugs and Crime prevention (UNODC) programmes, have concluded that, in the same period, the international trafficking in women, children and adolescents transfers between 7 and 9 billion dollars each year, being one of the most profitable activities. Based on the comparison between the critical reading of the interview given by Gayle Rubin to Judith Butler about feminist moments and movements and the feminist practice within the studies about trafficking in women, conducted by Vanessa Cavalcanti, this session aims at reconsidering the theory-practice dialogue in feminism.

Text to be analysed

Biographic Note

Vanessa Ribeiro Simon Cavalcanti is a researcher at CAPES/Brazil (Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Level Personnel) and the University of Salamanca/Fundación Carolina, Spain. She holds a Doctoral Degree by the University of Leon, Spain, and a Post-Doctoral Degree by the Salamanca University. She integrates the Research Group on Youth, Identities, Citizenship and Culture - NPEJI/UCSAL - and the Research Group on Urban Social History - PUC/SP.

Organization: Gisele Wolkoff and Júlia Garraio (NHUMEP)