Sex Work, abolitionism, and the rise of trans women leadership in Argentina

Abstract (English)

This paper examines the foundational role of abolitionist discourses in shaping trans women’s political agency and leadership in Argentina between 1998 and 2016. While current debates in several countries, including Spain, witness the convergence of trans-exclusionary feminism and abolitionism, with calls to prohibit surrogacy, deny the legitimacy of trans identities, and eradicate sex work, Argentina offers a contrasting trajectory. There, the association between abolitionist rhetoric and trans-exclusion is relatively recent and overlooks the political history of trans organizing.
In the early 2000s, amid an intense economic crisis and widespread informalization of labor, many trans women in Argentina found themselves forced into sex work due to systemic exclusion from the formal labor market. At this critical juncture, trans activists mobilized around abolitionist critiques of the sex trade—not to marginalize sex workers, but to argue that prostitution was neither a free choice nor a dignified job under current structural conditions. These arguments, rooted in abolitionist feminism, served not to silence but to empower trans women politically. By rejecting the normalization of sex work as the only viable form of labor for trans women, activists made a powerful case for inclusion in broader employment and social protection policies.
This reframing opened new political opportunities for trans leadership. It allowed trans women to emerge as key actors in the struggle for social and labor rights, pushing for public policies that recognized their citizenship and dignity beyond the sex trade. Far from being passive recipients of state recognition, trans women strategically engaged abolitionist language to demand real alternatives—education, housing, healthcare, and formal employment. In this sense, abolitionist discourse, in the Argentine context, enabled rather than hindered trans political empowerment.
By analyzing this historical process, the paper contributes to a broader understanding of how cis and trans women—especially from marginalized communities—craft power through activism, policy advocacy, and collective organizing. It sheds light on how trans leadership in Argentina redefined the terms of inclusion, using abolitionist language not to reinforce exclusion, but to demand structural change.
This paper highlights the complex ways in which gendered power operates in activist spaces, and how trans women in Argentina have navigated and reimagined these dynamics to gain political visibility and institutional recognition. This case encourages a more nuanced understanding of the intersections between abolitionism, labor, and gender identity, and invites us to rethink how marginalized leadership can transform the frameworks through which we understand power and inclusion.