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Female Sexual Slavery
"A powerful work filled with disbelief, outrage, and documentation...sexual bondage shackles women as much today as it has for centures."
— Los Angeles Times
"Exposes the dark side of sexuality and dares to ask the crucial question, 'why do men do these things to women?'...the issues it raises deserve nationwide attention."
—Susan Brownmiller
"Kathy Barry has written a courageous, crusading book that should be read everywhere, from the local District Attorney's office to the United Nations."
—Gloria Steinem
"This powerful and compassionate book should be read by anyone concerned with social values, with sexuality, with psychology — female and male."
—Adrienne Rich
— Los Angeles Times
"Exposes the dark side of sexuality and dares to ask the crucial question, 'why do men do these things to women?'...the issues it raises deserve nationwide attention."
—Susan Brownmiller
"Kathy Barry has written a courageous, crusading book that should be read everywhere, from the local District Attorney's office to the United Nations."
—Gloria Steinem
"This powerful and compassionate book should be read by anyone concerned with social values, with sexuality, with psychology — female and male."
—Adrienne Rich
338 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1979
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About the author
Kathleen Barry
16 books16 followersKathleen Barry is an American sociologist. She cofounded the United Nations NGO, the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW).
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 18, 2025
the most comprehensive, thorough and hopeful radical book on the topic of sexual slavery, the wife and the prostitute.
a feminist classic that is even more relevant now
a feminist classic that is even more relevant now
June 24, 2024
A POWERFUL BOOK DEALING WITH ALL FORMS OF WOMEN’S “SEXUAL SLAVERY”
Kathleen Barry is an American sociologist and feminist. She cofounded the United Nations NGO, the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW).
She wrote in the first chapter of this 1979 book, “When a friend first suggested that I write a book on what I was describing to her as female sexual slavery, I resisted the idea… to write a book on the subject---to spent two or three years researching, studying female slavery---that was out of the question… [But] I realized that my reaction was typical of women’s response… It was then that I realized … that the only way we can… break through our paralyzing defenses, is to know the full extent of sexual violence and domination of women… In KNOWING, in facing directly, we can learn how to chart our course out of this oppression, by envisioning and creating a world which will preclude female sexual slavery... I began to look for the women who have escaped. My approach was to find any evidence of sexual slavery wherever I could, and to try to fill out fragmentary facts from interviewing people associated with a particular case… As I received information about each case… I would confirm the story by contacting people close to the case---lawyers, reporters, police, district attorneys, anti-slavery organization, and the victims themselves wherever possible.” (Pg. 4-6)
She observes, “When men entered the campaign against regulated prostitution, particularly in rescue work and investigations, one notes that consistently their behavior was dominated by righteous heroics in which the fate of the victim is secondary to the escapade they are performing. Such heroics are marked by paternalism wherein the hero acted out his concern and caring with fatherly authority. Furthermore, the men’s misguided concern for the plight of prostitutes was interpreted as sensationalism, which only discredited the reports of the traffic in women.” (Pg. 20)
She suggests that in the Victorian era, “Responsibility for sexual containment rested on women… it was never assumed that men could live by values of containment. The sexual double standard recognized the inevitability of male infidelity. That infidelity … suggests an acute need for access to prostitutes. As long as prostitutes were separate, isolated, and different from other women, Victorian men could secretly frequent them, taking care of socially suppressed sexual needs while maintaining a posture of containment in their daily lives. It obviously was not in their self-interest to see Josephine Butler disrupt the double standard on which rested the morality that assured their access to prostitutes. To see THOSE women treated with the same respect and dignity as their supposedly sexless wives would defeat their need to distinguish between madonna and [prostitute].” (Pg. 26)
She notes, “Sexual violence… constitutes acts of excess that are unlimited in potential, scope, and depth and that are therefore terrifying to both victims and nonvictims… Terror… permeates lives, often through something ‘known’ but never stated. Such is the way a legacy of terror passes from mother to daughter… mothers explain to daughters why it is unwise for them to go out at night even though their brothers do. Sexual terrorism is a way of life for women.” (Pg. 36)
She recounts, “In interviews with ex-prostitutes I have often noticed a lingering pride in their work. When they tell the rest of us that we are straight, judgmental, and prudish, they are surviving by defending the definition they have accepted of themselves and making the most of it.” (Pg. 102)
She points out, “Regulated prostitution has accomplished nothing is has boasted of. It has no cut down on crime associated with prostitution… prostitutes are taxed by the state instead of fined by the courts, but they are not given social security or other benefits normally given to taxpayers. In addition, the regulationist system with legal houses provides business incentive and legal protection for the traffic in women.” (Pg. 113)
She states, “Is this a social service that men MUST have provided them, that women MUST perform? In no other form of slavery are those in power called upon to love those whom they have found to be inferior and despicable. Male domination reduces women to a lower status, holding them in low regard, and at the same time it makes women the object of men’s personal need for love, romance and sex. The oppressors of women carry the unique responsibility of masculinist values to both love and hate women… Wife-beaters exemplify men who contain the mandate to both love and hate women within one relationships. Other men who do not want to inflict contempt, disgust, and hatred on their loved one may still need to act it out. Prostitution provides that opportunity… This misogyny, the use of prostitutes to act out one’s contempt for the lower and degraded sex, is the single most powerful reason why prostitution has always been considered a cultural universal… It intersects with the domination of women at all levels of society.” (Pg. 116-117)
She notes, “Distortion of reality is an appeal to fantasy and a form of entertainment but it is also a political act, an attempt to create an image of women that is consistent with the way men want to see and use them… except in ritualistic sex murders, pornography is careful not to show any marks, blood, or bruises on the woman’s body… When the victim becomes invisible, the consumer enjoys the brutality of sadism guilt-free, as he never has to see the consequences of it.” (Pg. 177-178)
She observes, “Why do men do these things to women? Because, in part, there is nothing to stop them. Norms and sanctions are rarely applied against female sexual slavery. And so, like the child who tests every limit he or she discovers until there is adult interference, there are men who will trample on every human value, every standard of human decency, every vestige of respect for human life, beyond almost every taboo.” (Pg. 215)
She concludes, “The liberty that feminists are demanding for women must be granted to all, whether or not we agree with them. But liberty loses its meaning when women are not in fact free to change their situation or when they participate in limiting others’ freedom, as when prostitutes acquire women for their pimps, or when wives cooperate with their husbands’ incestuous assaults on their daughters. These changes are only the beginning of a revolution that has never happened before. It is one that will grow out of united strength of women, a strength derived from new values… It must ultimately address all levels of exploitation, particularly the economic and the political; but for women colonized both the economic and political are based on the sexual.” (Pg. 237)
This book will be of great interest to those studying sex trafficking, prostitution, pornography, and related topics.
Kathleen Barry is an American sociologist and feminist. She cofounded the United Nations NGO, the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW).
She wrote in the first chapter of this 1979 book, “When a friend first suggested that I write a book on what I was describing to her as female sexual slavery, I resisted the idea… to write a book on the subject---to spent two or three years researching, studying female slavery---that was out of the question… [But] I realized that my reaction was typical of women’s response… It was then that I realized … that the only way we can… break through our paralyzing defenses, is to know the full extent of sexual violence and domination of women… In KNOWING, in facing directly, we can learn how to chart our course out of this oppression, by envisioning and creating a world which will preclude female sexual slavery... I began to look for the women who have escaped. My approach was to find any evidence of sexual slavery wherever I could, and to try to fill out fragmentary facts from interviewing people associated with a particular case… As I received information about each case… I would confirm the story by contacting people close to the case---lawyers, reporters, police, district attorneys, anti-slavery organization, and the victims themselves wherever possible.” (Pg. 4-6)
She observes, “When men entered the campaign against regulated prostitution, particularly in rescue work and investigations, one notes that consistently their behavior was dominated by righteous heroics in which the fate of the victim is secondary to the escapade they are performing. Such heroics are marked by paternalism wherein the hero acted out his concern and caring with fatherly authority. Furthermore, the men’s misguided concern for the plight of prostitutes was interpreted as sensationalism, which only discredited the reports of the traffic in women.” (Pg. 20)
She suggests that in the Victorian era, “Responsibility for sexual containment rested on women… it was never assumed that men could live by values of containment. The sexual double standard recognized the inevitability of male infidelity. That infidelity … suggests an acute need for access to prostitutes. As long as prostitutes were separate, isolated, and different from other women, Victorian men could secretly frequent them, taking care of socially suppressed sexual needs while maintaining a posture of containment in their daily lives. It obviously was not in their self-interest to see Josephine Butler disrupt the double standard on which rested the morality that assured their access to prostitutes. To see THOSE women treated with the same respect and dignity as their supposedly sexless wives would defeat their need to distinguish between madonna and [prostitute].” (Pg. 26)
She notes, “Sexual violence… constitutes acts of excess that are unlimited in potential, scope, and depth and that are therefore terrifying to both victims and nonvictims… Terror… permeates lives, often through something ‘known’ but never stated. Such is the way a legacy of terror passes from mother to daughter… mothers explain to daughters why it is unwise for them to go out at night even though their brothers do. Sexual terrorism is a way of life for women.” (Pg. 36)
She recounts, “In interviews with ex-prostitutes I have often noticed a lingering pride in their work. When they tell the rest of us that we are straight, judgmental, and prudish, they are surviving by defending the definition they have accepted of themselves and making the most of it.” (Pg. 102)
She points out, “Regulated prostitution has accomplished nothing is has boasted of. It has no cut down on crime associated with prostitution… prostitutes are taxed by the state instead of fined by the courts, but they are not given social security or other benefits normally given to taxpayers. In addition, the regulationist system with legal houses provides business incentive and legal protection for the traffic in women.” (Pg. 113)
She states, “Is this a social service that men MUST have provided them, that women MUST perform? In no other form of slavery are those in power called upon to love those whom they have found to be inferior and despicable. Male domination reduces women to a lower status, holding them in low regard, and at the same time it makes women the object of men’s personal need for love, romance and sex. The oppressors of women carry the unique responsibility of masculinist values to both love and hate women… Wife-beaters exemplify men who contain the mandate to both love and hate women within one relationships. Other men who do not want to inflict contempt, disgust, and hatred on their loved one may still need to act it out. Prostitution provides that opportunity… This misogyny, the use of prostitutes to act out one’s contempt for the lower and degraded sex, is the single most powerful reason why prostitution has always been considered a cultural universal… It intersects with the domination of women at all levels of society.” (Pg. 116-117)
She notes, “Distortion of reality is an appeal to fantasy and a form of entertainment but it is also a political act, an attempt to create an image of women that is consistent with the way men want to see and use them… except in ritualistic sex murders, pornography is careful not to show any marks, blood, or bruises on the woman’s body… When the victim becomes invisible, the consumer enjoys the brutality of sadism guilt-free, as he never has to see the consequences of it.” (Pg. 177-178)
She observes, “Why do men do these things to women? Because, in part, there is nothing to stop them. Norms and sanctions are rarely applied against female sexual slavery. And so, like the child who tests every limit he or she discovers until there is adult interference, there are men who will trample on every human value, every standard of human decency, every vestige of respect for human life, beyond almost every taboo.” (Pg. 215)
She concludes, “The liberty that feminists are demanding for women must be granted to all, whether or not we agree with them. But liberty loses its meaning when women are not in fact free to change their situation or when they participate in limiting others’ freedom, as when prostitutes acquire women for their pimps, or when wives cooperate with their husbands’ incestuous assaults on their daughters. These changes are only the beginning of a revolution that has never happened before. It is one that will grow out of united strength of women, a strength derived from new values… It must ultimately address all levels of exploitation, particularly the economic and the political; but for women colonized both the economic and political are based on the sexual.” (Pg. 237)
This book will be of great interest to those studying sex trafficking, prostitution, pornography, and related topics.
November 22, 2017
Kathleen Barrys patriarchale Analyse ist ein unverzichtbares Standardwerk radikalfeministischer Literatur. Neben einer interessanten historischen Betrachtung, liefert Barry mit viel Weitblick wichtige Informationen über Prostitution und Pornographie und erläutert auch wo revolutionäres Potential liegt. Eine absolute Leseempfehlung.
August 14, 2007
the author is a pioneer activist in women's rights. good read, clear and forceful in its argument.
March 31, 2024
Very difficult but important read.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews