Women Street Vendors: An Ethnography of Informal Trade in Athens

This article focuses on women street vendors in the centre of Athens, selling their products either as wandering peddlers or at stationary stalls. They usually sell their own hand-made goods, including aprons, socks and sweaters. For most of these women, their legal status is marginal, in the sense that they do not usually operate under a trading license. They prefer to sell their products on isolated street corners or at the outskirts of open street markets, so as not to interfere and collide with certified traders. Here, I am focusing on the daily issues of women street vendors, on their effort to sell their unlicensed goods, the strategies they employ and the significance of their female gender.