The Beijing Platform for Action which emerged from the 1995 Fourth United Nations World Conference on Women called for the development of 'suitable statistical means to recognise and make visible the full extent of the work of women and all their contributions to the national economy, including their contribution in the unremunerated and domestic sectors'. During 2000, Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) conducted the fieldwork for the first national time use study in the country. The aim of the survey was to provide information on the way in which different individuals in South Africa spend their time. Such information contributes to greater understanding of policymakers on the economic and social well-being of different societal groups. In particular, the study was intended to provide new information on the division of both paid and unpaid labour between women and men, and greater insight into less well understood productive activities such as subsistence work,casual work and work in the informal sector. The survey thus had dual objectives: (1) improvement of concepts, methodology and measurement of all types of work and work-related activity, and (2) the feeding of information into better policy-making, with a particular focus on gender equity.
