“It is such a very free job.” Selected aspects of the lifestyle of women in the private sex business

The lifestyle of people working in the sex business differs, especially due to the financial situation, specific working hours, choice of how leisure time is spent and the nature of the work. Recently, the sex business in the Czech Republic has moved from nightclubs to apartments and private flats. The secretiveness of the private sex business is connected with a very small mapping of this form and the persons working in it, therefore the aim of this paper is to describe the lifestyle of women working in the private sex business considering their everyday life at work as well as out of it. A qualitative research strategy with the technology of a biographical-narrative interview has been used in the research. The research file was formed of 10 women working in the private sex business within the South Bohemian Region. The ascertained data has been processed and coded in the Atlas.ti programme and then by means of set theory the following main categories were identified: addictions (substance and non-substance), relationship to clients, family, partners, relationship to work and healthy lifestyle. The results show that women in the private sex business are a markedly heterogeneous group considering the area of relationships. A common aspect is considering the sex business as “a business”. The informants positively evaluate their work with respect to the opportunity to decide on their working hours and leisure time by themselves, and with respect to the financial benefits that often serve as support for close family.