ABSTRACT
This chapter examines some of the mainstream theoretical and methodological conventions which have resulted in the invisibility of the gendered structuring of work and the consequent ignoring of the different experiences and meanings of work. It discusses some of the ways in which feminist scholarship attempts to develop more encompassing analytical concepts and categories free from these flaws. In the research on women in self employment and small business the results also raise questions about several aspects of gender relations, household divisions of labour and women’s experiences which show many similarities with those in mining communities. The development of discrete categories of work and workers, consequent on ideological changes accompanying industrialism made the association of women and work normatively unaccepted and unacceptable. Gender relations therefore lie at the heart of the divisions of labour and sociological theorising, investigation and explanation need to incorporate them.
