Why do some women decide to sell sex by choice, or at least without being subject to any obvious coercion? Anna Kontula has met hundreds of sex workers and interviewed dozens of them. The metaphor that best describes their experience is that of an ‘exodus'.

People in Finland do not end up selling sex due to dire poverty. The decision to take up sex work lies more in the realm of power than economics. In Finland

sex work is often undertaken only as a short-term job and is located temporally, socially and symbolically somewhere else, far off from everyday life.

Sex workers are not passive objects but protagonists: to the extent permitted by their circumstances, they actively strive for what is best.