Prostitution is considered by many people to be the oldest lucrative trade in the world. However, some people, as a system of human exploitation, also currently view it. There is a debate about whether prostitution is a form of exploitation that must be abolished, or an activity that must be regulated.  Scholars have argued their reasons for or against, however, to date there is no consensus of opinion on the matter, especially by sex workers who exercise it. In this study, we investigated the position of the female worker on prostitution. Our research is descriptive, analytical, and ex - post facto, and the instrument used was an interview aimed at a sample of 62 women from Panama City. The Cohen association index was applied as a statistical method to investigate the association between the variables Nationality, educational level, place where prostitution exerts, reasons for exercising it and age and the perception that the sex worker has about prostitution as a work activity or form of exploitation/violence. All variables were associated with the perception of the sex worker, being the nationality and age, the variables with higher and lower degree of association with prostitution, respectively. Our results indicate that the sex worker conceives prostitution as a lucrative activity to generate income, however all the women in this study have been victims of some form of violence during the exercise of prostitution. In conclusion, less than half of the women in the sample recognize prostitution as a form of violence and human exploitation.