Women in the informal economy: Listening to their voices and improving their lives through caring action research projects

How do we, as management scholars and practitioners, advance the power, earnings, and opportunities for women who work in the informal economy? How do we promote "decent work" for women in all geographic and economic arenas-and improve their perceived and real value? Employment in the informal economy reaches 45 to 60 percent in non-agricultural GDP (Chen 2000). This figure does not include women's unpaid housework and caregiving activities, or paid roles in home-based remunerative work, street vendor-ships, prostitution, or sex trafficking. Women in these roles are poor. They are not afforded basic human rights, social protections, or social dialogue. Yet, women and girls have been found to be the critical lynchpin for socioeconomic progress across the globe. The goal for this PDW is to create an exciting conversation between academics and practitioners across disciplines and Academy divisions who want to design real-world projects to help women in the informal economy find their voice and improve their lives with action-oriented care and "decent work" (Chant and Pedwell 2008). Action Research methods will be used to bridge research with experience in practice-grounded roundtables, where ideas will be organically nurtured, collaboratively developed, and/or critiqued. Participants are invited to propose their own project (in embryo or development stage) or join others presented.