Unreliable Account of Women's Work: Evidence from Latin American Census Statistics (original) (raw)

Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 1986

Abstract

Anyone walking through the commercial areas of Mexico City, Lima, or Quito will be immersed in a crowd of street peddlers-men, women, and children-endlessly offering their merchandise in the streets and markets. A casual observer, driving through the roads of the Caribbean islands or passing through the Bolivian altiplano, will see men, women, and children working in the fields, harvesting a crop, preparing the land for planting, or feeding the pigs. The traveler might also see women spinning or canning goods to offer in the market. It is not difficult to verify the existence of working women. Yet, for a researcher or a planner to know the exact size of the female labor force through official statistics will be impossible, even when they are designed to record the women workers who contribute their labor to produce goods and services for the market. This report addresses the quality of the official accounting of that part of women's contribution to the economy that is explicitly recognized by

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