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Women in the Informal Sector is a switt tour d’horizon of some of the paradoxes in the study and analysis of the informal sector since the mid-seventies. It starts by considering the variagated conceptions of what this sector is and its role in development. The dualistic conception of this sector is then surveyed and criticized, in the light of the antinomies of the economic model of man from whence it is derived.

The economic model’s lack or marginalization of gender issues becomes the entry point for a sociological discussion of women in the informal sector. Finally, the lecture concludes this tour d’horizon with a review of the wider issues posed by the “feminization” and “internationalization of poverty” and the role of the “lords of poverty” in the process - and suggests a range of priorities for further action by both policy makers and analysts,

C.K. Omari is Professor of Sociology at the University of Dar es Salaam and a keen observer of Tanzania’s development trajectory. He has published widely on social issues both locally and internationally. His forthcoming publications with DUP include: Rural-Urban Migration and Poverty Alleviation in Tanzania. Gender Relations and Women’s Images in the Mass Media (both co-edited with D.A.S. Mbilinyi) and Health Policy and Development in Tanzania.

DAR ES SALAAM UNIVERSITY PRESS

ISBN 9976 60 288 X