This article draws together unusual characteristics of the legacy of apartheid in South Africa: the state-orchestrated destruction of family life, high rates of unemployment and a high prevalence of HIV/AIDS. The disruption of family life has resulted in a situation in which many women have to fulfil the role of both breadwinner and care giver in a context of high unemployment and very limited economic opportunities. The question that follows is: given this crisis of care, to what extent can or will social protection and employment-related social policies provide the support women and children need?
Time-use surveys show how individuals spend their time during the day or week, which provides evidence of the gendered division of labor within households and the interdependence of women's and men's paid and unpaid work. Time-use experts in the South face similar challenges to those working in other countries, but they also have to come to terms with the restrictions faced in less developed contexts�-�notably higher illiteracy rates and limited statistical budgets. These Explorations bring together contributions from three experts on time-use survey design and administration working in three diverse Southern regions to highlight the ongoing processes of learning-by-doing and of building local expertise in these regions. Their discussion of methodological and logistical issues holds particular relevance for developing countries moving toward the implementation of time-use surveys. It also bears on more general feminist concerns regarding the classification and measurement of unpaid care.Survey research, time budget surveys, unpaid work, JEL Codes: C81, J22,
In this paper, written in 199 7 but not previously published, Budlender queries the use of the term and concept of 'household head ' in censuses and surveys. The term is used to measure very different concepts, and can be operationalised in a wide range of ways. Researchers have begun to examine the term critically in part because of a growing concern with gender inequalities in Southern Africa and elsewhere. The paper reviews whether and how 'household heads ' are identified in censuses in the USA, Australia, New Zealand and Britain, as well as in South Africa.
The standard arguments for identifying a household head include its value in classifying households and in identifying relationships between household members. But these beg questions about what constitutes a 'household '.Budlender concludes that household headship should not be defined in terms ofanyone criterion, such as ownership of the housing unit, primary income-earning, gender, age or primary decision-making. Instead, all of these dimensions should be explored through questions in censuses or surveys, to allow for afuller analysis ofthe variety ofhousehold andfamily form s.
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