The author examines three questions: how much females participate in the informal economy; why they participate; and what the policy implications of their participation are. In the process of examining these issues, the author develops a behavioral theory of female participation, involving exit, voice, loyalty, and dual loyalty, following Hirschman's work. Using three measures—the number of individuals; the amount of time; and dollars—she finds that women participate in the informal economy as much as, and probably more than, men do. In the course of trying to explain why females participate in the informal economy, she discusses a variety of different explanations and then rejects them because they are too value laden and/or they make too many assumptions. Finally, she discusses the policy implications of more and more women having dual loyalty, such as the need for government-regulated, safe day care, and the need for revising the definition of labor force participation to reflect some of the informal activity of women.
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References
1.
Ray E. Pahl , Divisions of Labour (New York: Basil Blackwell, 1984).
2.
2. This definition follows most closely the definition of Mattera, for whom the unofficial nature of the informal economy is of paramount importance in demarcating the formal from the informal. Phillip Mattera, Off the Books: The Rise of the Underground Economy (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1985), p. 1.
3.
for reference to Pahl and Gershuny, see esp. ibid., p. 84.
4.
Bruce Frederick and Steven Greenstein, “Recent Trends in Arrest, Conviction, and Sentencing of Female Offenders in New York State” (Paper delivered at the meeting of the American Society of Criminology, San Diego, CA, 1985).
5.
Harold C. Barnett , “Tax Evasion by Proxy: The Grey Market in Welfare Capitalism,”Contemporary Crisis, 8:107-123 (1984).
6.
6. Vinay, “Family Life Cycle,” p. 83.
7.
7. U.S., General Accounting Office, Growth of the Underground Economy, 1950-81: Some Evidence from the Current Population Survey (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1983).
8.
For an excellent volume on the work patterns of contemporary women, see Francine D. Blau and Marianne A. Ferber, The Economics of Women, Men, and Work (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1986).
9.
9. General Accounting Office, Growth of the Underground Economy, p. 14.
10.
10. Aside from nonpayment of social security, there are other measures of informal activity, such as nonreporting of income tax, but this is the most difficult data to acquire since respondents who have not paid their income taxes are reluctant to admit this.
11.
11. Louis A. Ferman, Louise E. Berndt, and Elaine Selo, “Analysis of the Irregular Economy: Cash Flow in the Informal Sector,” mimeographed (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan; Detroit, MI: Wayne State University, 1978).
12.
12. Smith, Moyer, and Trzcinski, “Measurement of Selected Income Flows.”
13.
13. Raymond E. Pahl, “Does Jobless Mean Workless? Unemployment and Informal Work,” this issue of The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.
14.
14. The number of mentions for each category of selling goods was as follows: door-to-door sales, 5.3; arts, crafts, furniture, and household, 2.2; fresh fruits, vegetables, and other food items grown, 1.5; cordwood, 0.4. The number of mentions for each category of selling services was: carpentry, painting, 2.7; baby-sitting and house-cleaning, 2.1; lawn and gardening care and onetime cleanups, 1.8; repairs of vehicles, furniture, and appliances, 1.7; sewing and laundry, 1.3; beauty care, catering, typing, and income tax preparation, 1.1; lessons, 0.6; other services, 4.5. The totals for both goods and services were 17.8. Smith, Moyer, and Trzcinski, “Measurement of Selected Income Flows.”
15.
15. Bettina Berch, The Endless Day: The Political Economy of Women (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1982), p. 19.
16.
For the opposite view, see Ivan Illich, “Vernacular Gender,”CoEvolution Quarterly, pp. 4-23 (Spring 1982). Illich's concept is that throughout time there has been a strict division of labor, with women using different tools and having different functions.
17.
17. Pahl, Divisions of Labour, p. 81.
18.
18. Ibid.
19.
Pahl , Divisions of Labour, p. 84.
20.
20. Pahl, Divisions of Labour, p. 84.
21.
Another more recent estimate is that women spend 11 hours per week compared with an average of 3 hours for men for nonroutine cleaning tasks. “State of the American Home Survey,” 1987, as reported in the St. Louis Post Dispatch, 25 Mar. 1987, p. 2A.
22.
22. Burns, Household Economy, p. 18.
23.
23. Ibid., pp. 17-18.
24.
24. Jonathan Gershuny, “Technology, Social Innovation, and the Informal Economy,” this issue of The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, figs. 2A and 2B.
25.
25. See ibid., figs. 4A and 4B.
26.
26. John P. Robinson, How Americans Use Time: A Social-Psychological Analysis of Everyday Behavior (New York: Praeger, 1977).
27.
Illich , “Vernacular Gender.”
28.
Burns , Household Economy, p. 24.
29.
In a later application, Mattera came up with the same set of figures. See Mattera, Off the Books, chap. 4, for a useful discussion of methodological problems also.
30.
30. In Table 3, the figures for each occupation category are Smith's, but the designations of female or male dominated are mine.
31.
31. Female wages in 1986 were only 64 percent of male wages. If we take 64 percent of the total dollar value of the male-dominated occupations indicated in Table 3—$16,500—we get $10,560. In other words, if we adjust for the relatively depressed female wages we get near equity of figures. The source of the figure of 64 percent was the U.S. Census Bureau, Women in the American Economy (1987), as reported in the St. Louis Post Dispatch, 4 Mar. 1987.
32.
32. This figure comes from Internal Revenue Service data as reported in the St. Louis Post Dispatch, 9 Mar. 1987, p. 13A.
33.
33. Elinor Lenz and Barabara Myerhoff, The Feminization of America (Los Angeles: Jeremy P. Tarcher, 1985), p. 92.
34.
Ferman , “Participation in the Informal Economy.”
35.
35. Diane Rothbard Margolis, The Managers (New York: William Morrow, 1979), p. 25.
36.
36. Lenz and Myerhoff, Feminization of America, p. 82.
37.
37. Robert Goffee and Richard Scase, Women in Charge (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1985).
38.
38. Judith B. Agassi, Comparing the Work Attitudes of Women and Men (Lexington, MA: Lexington Books, 1982), p. 252-253.
39.
39. Dorothy D. Smith, Feminism and Marxism, a Place to Begin, a Way to Go (Vancouver: New Star Books, 1977), p. 22.
40.
40. Ibid.
41.
41. Ibid.
42.
42. Stuart Henry, “Can the Hidden Economy Be Revolutionary? Towards a Dialectical Analysis of the Relations between Formal and Informal Economics,” mimeographed (Norfolk, VA: Old Dominion University, 1986).
43.
43. Vinay, “Family Life Cycle,” pp. 92-93.
44.
44. Howard Hayge, “Working Mothers Reach Record Number in 1984,”Monthly Labor Review, p. 31 (Dec. 1984).
45.
45. Ibid. There is one exception. The figure dips or flattens slightly for mothers with children between four and five years old.
46.
46. Illich, “Vernacular Gender,” p. 9.
47.
47.Ray Pahl, “Employment, Work and the Domestic Division of Labour,”International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 4:14-17 (1980).
48.
48. Vinay, “Family Life Cycle,” p. 95.
49.
49. Ferman, “Participation in the Informal Economy,” p. 24.
50.
50. Ibid.
51.
Pahl , “Employment, Work and the Democratic Division of Labour.”
53. Henry, “Can the Hidden Economy be Revolutionary?”
54.
see also Larry DeBoer and Michael Seeborg, “The Female-Male Unemployment Differential: Effects of Changes in Industry Employment,”Monthly Labor Review, pp. 8-13 (Nov. 1984).
55.
55. This does not negate the fact that the irregular economy does help low-income individuals cope. See Pahl, Divisions of Labour.
56.
56. Jeremy D. Alden, “Holding Two Jobs: An Examination of `Moonlighting,' ” in Informal Institutions, ed. Stuart Henry (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1981), pp. 43-59.
57.
Rolf G. Heinze and Thomas Olk, “Development of the Informal Economy: A Strategy for Resolving the Crisis of the Welfare State,”Futures, pp. 189-204 (June 1982).
58.
58. Albert O. Hirschman, Exit, Voice and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations and States (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1970).
59.
Peter Gutmann , “The Subterranean Economy,”Tax and Spending, pp. 4-11 (Apr. 1979).
60.
60. The reader will recall the figures on the relative amount of household effort men and women contributed to the household.
