This article discusses the debate on the relationship between the informal sector [IS] and the formal or capitalist sector, and notes that the link between the two argued in terms of the functionality of the IS to capital, is similar to the arguments made in the domestic labour debate, in which it is argued that women's unpaid housework is functional to capital since it lowers the cost of the reproduction of labour power. The authors suggest that any simple economistic explanation for the existence and growth of the informal sector, and women's work within it, is inadequate. They argue for a conceptual scheme which includes both social and political factors.