I always have despised the term, "the world's oldest profession", as used in reference to the prostitution of women. Recent times have been quite beneficial for many women in many countries for their education, their freedom of choice, their opportunities for equivalent pay and jobs, their ownership of their own body, their determination and say of a marriage partner, their own money, and their legal rights. These significant steps have allowed women the world over, to have a firm foundation in their own decisions, their own livelihood, and have improved the world immensely by utilizing their intelligence, knowhow, and perspective in new and important ways throughout society.
It is gratifying to see that women are at a minimum given the choice of getting education, continuing their education, and then having the freedom to use that knowledge in the world at large. Of course, and unfortunately, that isn't the case in all countries, as there are countries of notable stature and power, that treat women as chattel, or even worse, in which women still have no rights, and are no better than common servants, with little or no natural rights.
Not too surprisingly, in countries in which women have little or no rights and thereby have little or no access to money or property, ultimately their choices for advancement and for survival of their own person, or of their families are severely compromised so that in these types of trying situations, women are put to the test, in which they must seriously consider monetizing one of the few things that they can sell, and that will often have ready buyers, which is their body.
The game is hardly fair, because the women are impoverished, with no legal or real power, with little or no opportunity, but burdened with responsibilities to themselves and to their families. It is because of that lack of opportunity, and for their needs both psychological and physical, that women are often essentially compelled into the world of prostitution. This unfortunate state of affairs is brought about deliberately because those that are in power feel no need to relinquish said power, and prefer to exercise that power against females that are not members of their clan or clique.
The world's oldest profession, is hardly something that women grow up wanting to become members of, it's seldom a preference or a real choice, it is instead often an act of desperation in order to survive another day. Prostitution is a fit and function and a referendum on how healthy a given society is in its respect, concern, and care for those that are less fortunate. A society that has many women that are pressured into prostitution is often also a society of rich and poor, powerful and powerless, healthy and unhealthy, protected and unprotected, Good Samaritans and careless Levites. It is in short a society that doesn't take the time or have the concern for those that are less-able, less advantaged, less gifted, than the elite or the fortunate that also mistakenly believe that they have some sort of God-given right to do what they do.
The world's oldest profession shouldn't exist; however it exists primarily because of the evil and selfishness in man's heart.