This paper investigates the changes that occurred in black South African women's labour force participation (LFP) over the 1995–2004 post-Apartheid period. Using regression analysis of individual cross-section data for 1995, 1999 and 2004, we show that throughout this period higher education and urban residence were associated with higher LFP, whereas the reverse was the case for ‘non-labour income’, marriage and fertility. We also find that the increase in black women's LFP between 1995 and 2004 could be attributable mainly to increases in the returns rather than to changes in their labour market characteristics.