Re-Reading Undeclared Work: A Gendered Analysis

Community, Work and Family, Vol. 9, No.2, pp.181-96, May 2006

Posted: 8 Jul 2013

See all articles by Colin Williams

Colin Williams

University of Sheffield - School of Management

Jan E. Windebank

University of Sheffield - Department of French

Date Written: 2006

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to evaluate whether undeclared work is the same when conducted by men and women. Conventionally, the view is that such work is always profit-motivated market-like work and that women’s undeclared work mirrors their subjugated position in the formal labour market in terms of pay, contract-type and sector. Reporting evidence gathered during 861 face-to-face interviews in contemporary England, however, this paper finds that to represent undeclared work as profit-motivated market-like endeavour is to read such work through the lens of men’s accounts of such work. For women, although some undeclared work is of this variety, the vast majority is conducted for friends, neighbours and kin for reasons associated with redistribution and social capital building and thus more akin to unpaid mutual aid than employment. To unshackle narratives of undeclared work from current market-centred readings, therefore, this paper differentiates between profit-motivated market-like informal employment and undeclared work carried out in a moral economy of paid favours so as to unravel the nature of men’s and women’s participation in this sphere and explore the implications for understanding women’s community engagement.

Keywords: gender division of labour, informal economy, informal employment, informal sector, underground sector, gender, social capital, England

JEL Classification: O17, H26, H31

Suggested Citation

Williams, Colin and Windebank, Jan E., Re-Reading Undeclared Work: A Gendered Analysis (2006). Community, Work and Family, Vol. 9, No.2, pp.181-96, May 2006, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2290757

Colin Williams (Contact Author)

University of Sheffield - School of Management ( email )

15 Conduit Road
Sheffield, S10 1FL
United Kingdom

HOME PAGE: http://https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/management/staff/williams/index

Jan E. Windebank

University of Sheffield - Department of French ( email )

United Kingdom
(0114) 222 4888 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://www.shef.ac.uk/french/staff/jwindebank.html

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