Female Prostitution in 18th-century England In early eighteenth-century London, prostitution was not about sex: it was about theft.
It was not about the exploitation of women: it was about the exploitation of men. Most of the prostitutes in early eighteenth-century London were second-generation Irish immigrants, whose fathers had not succeeded in finding an adequate livelihood. Life on the game in such a community was the norm rather than the last resort. Prostitutes very often worked as servants in bawdy houses and disorderly houses before they entered the trade themselves.
The view that women went into prostitution after being made pregnant and "abandoned" by an apprentice who broke his promise to marry her is only partly true. Most prostitutes were married, and most of their husbands were thieves.
In eighteenth-century London, prostitutes, especially those who operated from the streets, regularly picked the pockets of the men they picked up. In most cases, theft rather than sex was the main object of the trade of prostitution.
Prostitutes kept an eye out for drunkards, whom they could easily roll. It was common in the rougher parts of London for streetwalkers to simply assault and steal from potential clients without actually having sex with them. Streetwalkers used their sexuality aggressively.
