Keeping Women Down and Out: The strip club boom and the reinforcement of male dominance.

This article looks at the increasing links between the sex industry and business in the form of executives and companies using strip clubs and brothels to network and broker deals, using prostituted women as bribes, or offering visits to brothels as Christmas bonuses. This problem is only just beginning to be recognized by feminist researchers and feminist activists. The factors that are creating this problem are the normalization of the sex industry, and in some cases its legalization and decriminalization, the entry of women to previously male dominated industries and professions, and the difficulty some men in business have in relating to women as equals. This sex industry use constitutes a serious obstacle to the achievement of women’s equal opportunities in business sectors where it takes place. Women employees have less chance to create the relationships and deals that would enable them to gain promotion and recognition, and may have to suffer indignities visited upon them by male colleagues on their return from sex industry venues.