Accounting for women's work: the progress of two decades

This paper reviews the progress made toward a more accurate statistical recording of women's economic activities. Beginning with an assessment of the main areas in which the underestimation of women's work has been prevalent, the article examines the conceptual, theoretical and methodological progress made during the past two decades. This progress has contributed to the improvement of statistics regarding women in subsistence production and has set the basis for the inclusion of domestic work in national accounts. Despite this progress, much remains to be done at the practical level — in these two areas and in statistics on the informal sector and volunteer activities — particularly at the national level.