Sharmila Parmanand talks about her research, writing and activism on sex workers' rights
Being at Cambridge helped me to take a more rigorous approach to my research...I continue to draw on this training in my teaching and research.”
Sharmila Parmanand
Sharmila Parmanand’s research on sex work was already having an impact beyond academia while she was at Cambridge, but she is now writing a book which she hopes will bring the issues to a wider audience.
While at Cambridge, Sharmila [2016] took part in an all-female panel discussion on the future of UK foreign policy at the Palace of Westminster and also spoke about the struggles of the sex worker rights movement in the Philippines at a Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW) event in Bangkok. Her article on Filipino sex workers’ struggle for recognition in The Anti-Trafficking Review is the most widely read in the journal’s history.
Now an Assistant Professor in Gender, Development and Globalisation at the London School of Economics, Sharmila is writing her book, Saving Our Sisters: The Politics of Anti-Trafficking and Sex Work in the Philippines, based on her dissertation.
Sharmila, who completed her PhD in Multi-Disciplinary Gender Studies in peak Covid, was appointed to the role of teaching fellow at LSE in 2021 and promoted to Assistant Professor in 2023. Between 2021 and 2023 Sharmila was awarded multiple excellence in teaching awards and was designated Director of the LSE MSc programme in Gender, Development and Globalisation.
Book news
In the past few months she has been able to dedicate more attention to her book, which brings her PhD work up to date, including reference to more recent insights on sex workers’ experiences post-Covid and online sex work and digital surveillance. Covid dealt a devastating blow to sex workers’ activism in the Philippines. As sex workers were not legally registered, they got no assistance and had to prioritise their personal survival, with housing being a big issue for many. The Duterte government took a securitised approach to Covid, instituting harsh lockdowns and expanded policing, which further harmed sex workers, says Sharmila. “They were already vulnerable to abuse and extortion, but they bore the brunt of Duterte’s crackdown and were further marginalised and found it hard to access any aid,” she states.
The book is aimed at both academics and practitioners. Sharmila says: “It will be of particular interest to those working in human rights, development and gender and feminism. It’s important to me that it has an impact on policy.” Her book will argue that if governments insist on understanding sex workers exclusively as victims, that limits the scope of their interventions to ‘rescuing’ and redirecting sex workers to other forms of low-paid, insecure, feminised work, foreclosing sex workers’ political agency or rights. She will make the case for an expansive re-imagining of anti-trafficking that foregrounds social justice and equity rather than criminalisation.
Advisory role
In addition to the book, Sharmila continues to advise organisations such as the Family Planning Organization of the Philippines and other NGOs and media organisations on how to foster inclusive environments for sex workers. She also continues to work with sex worker-led organisations in the Philippines and is cautiously optimistic about improvements in public discourse in the Philippines since she began her PhD. She cites as an example “the increasing normalisation of respectful language such as ‘sex work’ in mainstream media and academic discussions, as opposed to derogatory or patronising alternatives, the increasing academic and journalistic interest in sex work from a rights rather than rescue perspective and the willingness of some local governments to meaningfully include sex workers in policy consultations”.
Other projects
As an inter-disciplinary scholar, Sharmila values collaborating with colleagues within and outside LSE. She is co-editor of the forthcoming Sage International Handbook of Gender, focusing on the Gender and Work section. She is also working with Professor Mark Thompson from City University Hong Kong on studying “strong women” and dynastic political rule in Asia, as a counterbalance to the dominant focus on male leaders in research on autocratisation, dynasties and populism.
Along with Dr Hasret Cetinkaya, senior lecturer in law at Manchester Metropolitan University, she is editing a special issue on Imagining an Alternative Politics of Human Rights. And with Dr Eunbi Lee, assistant professor at the National University of Singapore, she is working on a special issue that centres trans-Asian sex work activism, featuring work from activists and academics across Asia and the diaspora. Based on her work with Filipino sex workers, Sharmila says she is committed to thinking carefully about methodological issues in participatory action research and has led several sessions on this topic hosted by LSE’s Research Office.
Gates Cambridge
Sharmila says her PhD would not have been possible without the support of Gates Cambridge. Gates Cambridge additionally gave her professional development support and coaching in communicating her work to a range of audiences, which strengthened her ability to engage the public in sometimes complex policy debates. She says it also provided her with access to a network of Gates Cambridge scholars who are doing interesting and impactful work.
She adds that her experience at Cambridge shaped her approach to her work. “Being at Cambridge helped me to take a more rigorous approach to my research,” she says. “I needed to provide compelling evidence for all my claims and constantly reflect on the ethics of studying stigmatised and minoritised communities. I continue to draw on this training in my teaching and research.”
