Feminist Reflections on Basic Income

Feminist economics, which grew in influence from the mid-1980s, encompassed a strong critique of the assumptions underlying the welfare state developments in Western Europe. It was argued that the link between paid employment and welfare entitlements, which was a fundamental element of most welfare states, reflected a perspective that showed a complete lack of recognition of the fluidity of women’s economic activities. This lack of recognition that women’s economic lives are likely to be shaped by a spectrum of economic activity which includes: paid employment - home-based carer – part-time employment – underemployment – unpaid work. Such a fluid economic picture fell largely outside the male-oriented binary image of employment: unemployment that underlay the thinking shaping western welfare states.