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The Veshya Anyay Mukti Parishad (VAMP) sex workers’ collective in India has promoted dialoguebetween sex workers and the public in order to transform perceptions and remove stigma surroundingtheir work. VAMP has forged a common identity among diverse women engaged in sex work and hassought to redefine their struggles in broad rights-based terms rather than just focusing on sexual health.Collective action among sex workers has been vital for their capacity to change their own and others’perceptions of their work, claim their rights and demand equal treatment as human beings, workers andcitizens. As a result, these women are gaining recognition not only as sex workers, but as educators onHIV, breadwinners and upwardly mobile women. 311RecommendationsTo achieve the transformation of labour marketsrequired for substantive equality, women mustbe centrally involved in influencing and shapingtheir workplaces. In order to strengthen women’sagency, voice and participation, priorities forgovernments, donors, international organizationsand trade unions include:• Ensure a conducive legal framework forwomen’s collective action around economicand social rights, including the right tocollective bargaining and the right to strike• Scale up funding for women’s labourorganizations, particularly those that representmarginalized or stigmatized informal workers,to improve working conditions and realizerights. Overseas development aid fromgovernments or private donors can playa particularly important role in supportingorganizations that need to remain independentfrom their own governments• Create spaces for women’s organizing, such ascaucuses and committees within mainstreamtrade unions and other workers’ organizations,to build women’s capacity and mainstreamgender equality issues• Increase the representation of women—including those in informal and part-timeemployment—in trade unions, especially indecision-making positions, and ensure thatwomen’s rights issues are consistently taken upin collective bargaining agreements.CONCLUSIONSPaid work can be a foundation for substantive equalityfor women, but only when it is compatible with women’sand men’s shared responsibility for unpaid care anddomestic work; when it gives women enough time forleisure and learning; and when it provides earningsthat are sufficient to maintain an adequate standardof living. This kind of work is the fundamental basis forwomen’s economic empowerment, with the potential toprovide resources, respect and agency.However, governments in all regions have struggledto generate enough decent employment in recentyears, a period when the capacity of organizedlabour to negotiate better wages and employment