WOMENS WORK AND INFORMAL ACTIVITIES IN SOUTHERN EUROPE

In Southern European countries, much of women's work lies out of the r ealm of 'wage labour' in forms of work which include agricultural labo ur in family farms, homeworking, unpaid domestic and caring labour, fa mily helpers, and/or informal work in tourism, industry, or personal s ervices. The importance of these forms of work is very likely to incre ase and several regions in Southern Europe present 'ideal conditions' for their proliferation. The bulk of women's work cannot be adequately grasped by looking exclusively at employment categories of economic a nd statistical surveys. These relegate to 'nonwork' many forms of wome n's labour in society. The authors discuss these 'other' forms of labo ur, focusing mainly on three issues: (a) the meaning and content of wo rk for women in Southern Europe; (b) the connotations associated with terms such as 'atypical', 'irregular', 'informal', and so on, usually used to describe such activities and forms of work; (c) the effects of women's overrepresentation in such forms of work on gender divisions and on their own work prospects.