ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the work of women in relation to universal basic income. It draws on a feminist economics perspective, to analyse the advantages and disadvantages a basic income can have for the lives of women, particularly in relation to the notion of ‘freedom’. It explores several examples and test-cases in which basic income has been implemented and changed the economic and social experiences of women in various social contexts. In some of the cases discussed in this chapter, a basic income can provide women with financial dependence, allowing them a new means of freedom. But the implementation of a universal basic income can also tie women to the domestic sphere, enticing them away from the traditional male domain of work. This chapter also discusses intersectionality and how a universal basic income has the potential to promote equal rights for men and women and how this would challenge the institutionalized and disadvantaged relationship between work and welfare as experienced by women of different ethnicities and social class positions.
