Independent female escorts: Stigmatized, value-adding entrepreneurs

In this article we characterize an independent female escort (IFE) as a sex worker who provides sexual services and companionship in exchange for remuneration, makes use of the Internet for the solicitation of her clients, and solicits those clients and organizes her work in a largely independent manner. We draw on the typology of value-adding and value-extracting entrepreneurship to argue that the activities of IFEs can be considered as entrepreneurial activity that has clear individual and societal benefits. Despite undertaking value-adding entrepreneurial activity, IFEs, as with other sex workers, often face social stigma and concomitant social exclusion. We argue that such stigma is not warranted, and highlight the opportunities for undertaking research into the manner in which perceived and experienced social stigma may affect the entrepreneurial activity of IFEs.