Women’s Voices Heard in Sex Trafficking Research

Research by ACRATH Member Sr Angela Reed rsm

Sister of Mercy Angela Reed thought she knew a lot about human trafficking when she managed Mercy Care refuge for six years from 2001. She suspected that some of the women had been trafficked into Australia; now she is certain.  In the past decade, while researching and writing her Masters and PhD, Angela discovered that sex trafficking is a very complex global problem and there is no one homogenous sex trafficking experience. Importantly, she can now put a name, a face and a story to the problem, stories that she is keen to share.

Angela was recently awarded her PhD by the School of Global, Urban and Social Studies at RMIT University in Melbourne. In her thesis, Exploiting Vulnerability: A Study of the Lives of Filipino Women Who Have Been Trafficked into Sex Work, Angela has given a human face to sex trafficking and explored the complex lives of 40 trafficked women.  Read more…