Sex work and war in the early modern Low Countries

Author(s)

  • Marion Pluskota Leiden University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.52024/4413zr62

Keywords:

sex work, Urban history, early modern Low Countries, Eighty Years War

Abstract

This response to Marjolein ’t Hart’s Oorlog en ongelijkheid reconsiders her argument about the indirect benefits of war for women by focusing specifically on those engaged in sex work. It argues that although urban sex workers initially profited from the booming wartime economy, the subsequent professionalization of the military and the rise of moral and legal reforms ultimately undermined these gains. It shows that the economic opportunities during war were tempered by harsher scrutiny, prosecution, and cultural marginalization that eroded the legitimacy of sex work. Immediate monetary benefits came at the cost of long-term social and legal disadvantages for these women.

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Author Biography

  • Marion Pluskota, Leiden University

    Marion Pluskota is an assistant professor in Social and Economic History at Leiden University. Her fields of interest are crime, sex work, and urban history from the eighteenth- to early twentieth-century Europe, with a specific focus on the use of different urban spaces for illegal/unwanted purposes.

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Published

2025-05-15

Issue

Section

Debate Article

How to Cite

Pluskota, M. (2025). Sex work and war in the early modern Low Countries . TSEG - The Low Countries Journal of Social and Economic History, 22(1), 115-124. https://doi.org/10.52024/4413zr62