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Economic and Reproductive Justice in the Context of Women in the Informal Economy

The discourse on women in the informal economy has always revolved around issues of economic justice viewed with a gender lens. It has highlighted the notion of work and how it has to be redefined in terms of what women do to earn a living and care for their families at the same time. It has focused on the invisibility and non-recognition of women’s many occupations both inside and outside the home. It has decried women’s multiple burdens as they are saddled with many kinds of work related to production for income, reproduction to sustain the household, and community maintenance. It has challenged the traditional concept of work, upheld by male-dominated trade unions, that only those who have employers can be considered workers and are therefore eligible for participation in the legitimate labour movement. It has advocated workers’ rights for invisible and unrecognised workers, especially those in home-based employment, as well as access to resources such as capital, technology, markets, and social protection for informal enterprises. Economic justice, in its more general and gender-neutral meaning, involves the exercise of economic rights related to the sphere of work, many of which are enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), and various International Labor Organization (ILO) conventions, particularly those having to do with core labour standards and decent work. Of particular relevance to informal labour in these times of financial and economic crisis is Article 11 of the ICESCR, which recognises the right of everyone and everyone’s family to “an adequate standard of living”, including “adequate food, clothing, and housing, and to the continuous improvement of living conditions” (Balakrishnan, 2006: 26).