ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the development and refinement of the concept of the informal sector, identifies the significant themes which have shaped analyses of gender and processes of informalization, and highlights a number of contemporary themes requiring further elaboration. The concept of the informal sector as a descriptive and analytical category and as a focus for policy planning and program intervention has grown in importance since the International Labour Organization adopted it in the early 1970s. Enterprise-level analyses also ignore the varied relations and labor processes characteristic of informal work and make invisible the number of businesses, establishments, and firms that are located in the household and draw on the unpaid labor of women and children. The globalization of production, the international division of labor, and the shift in development priorities within countries represent processes of change which expose the increasing participation of women in remunerative activity.
