This research aimed to understand and analyze the prostitute s relationship with her family and social setting. These women treat their families as a setting to be lived apart from prostitution, as a world of moral values in which the family woman bears no likeness to the prostitute. To investigate this phenomenon, interviews were conducted with ten women with children who work in Vila Mimosa, a lower-class meretricious zone. To analyze the interviews, the qualitative methodology was adopted and categories were elaborated to systematize and improve the understanding of the objectives set forth in the research. The results revealed the social relations established in the family, at the work environment and inside the community; the daily life of prostitution; the questions related to their families of origin; and the dedication extended to the children. The theoretical basis adopted in this study comprised interdisciplinary research and literature on the subject, as well as the autobiographies of women who are no longer engaged in prostitution. This research addressed prostitution from its beginnings to current times, Vila Mimosa as an example of its struggle and perseverance, the identities and stereotypes lived by the sex professional, their interaction with clients, and the ambiguity between the street woman and the family woman.