Response to Lindsey Macdonald's 'We are All Housewives: Universal Basic Income as Wages for Housework'

Abstract

International debate regarding universal basic income proposals has increased markedly in recent years. This has included a spirited feminist debate about the merits of basic income (BI) for contributing to gender equality. Advocates have pointed to the potential for BI to correct the paid work bias of contemporary social security systems and to increase women's economic autonomy and power within the household. Critics have argued that BI will do nothing to directly challenge the gendered division of labour and may well reinforce it. As such, the feminist debate about BI is in some ways a microcosm of wider feminist controversies regarding how the state can recognize the unpaid work women largely do without reinforcing existing inequalities. Nevertheless, this focus marginalizes other aspects of gender inequality, particularly intersections between gender and class and race, including the positions of women in the Global South and additional policy issues such as poverty. Using Nancy Fraser's 7 principles of gender equity, this paper demonstrates how a multi-dimensional perspective on gender equality strengthens the feminist case for BI proposals.