A basic income will not mobilize the women’s movement – class divisions and household taxation will block them
Zelleke, 2019 - Prof of Practice in Political Science at NYU Shanghai [Almaz, May 16, Phenomenal World, “Feminist Theory, Gender Inequity, and Basic Income” Interview by Hana Beach, https://www.phenomenalworld.org/interviews/feminist-theory-gender-inequity-and-basic-income/ Acc 2/23/23 TA]
AZ: Occupy was the movement that brought the “one percent” into our lexicon. It got people talking about the distribution of wealth in our society. For example, there’s this sound bite that gets repeated that, since 2008, every year the top 1% of Americans get richer and the lowest 50% of Americans get poorer. We’re talking about these figures this way because of Occupy and I think that’s informed the basic income debate. Now, I don’t think there will be a women’s movement for basic income. The issue with women’s movements in general is that women are dispersed throughout society. So much about the condition of a particular woman depends on the class they are born into. I don’t think we can really mobilize women until we have an individualized system of taxation. Our household reporting of income obscures the distribution of wealth that takes place within families and couples. I think a separation between men and women in taxation could mobilize women in the way that other individually based concerns like the wage gap have. The problem, of course, is that the wage gap is only one part of the economic reality of women. It only affects women who are actually earning wages.