Despite imperfections – UBI enhances general equality

Thus, we conclude that UBI may be a tool for empowering its recipients, albeit in an established gender-equal welfare state that concerns women and men alike. While UBI is not a universal silver bullet of any kind in enhancing gender equality in a society such as Finland, it may well be that in developing countries or countries with greater gender inequalities. In a highly egalitarian Nordic country, a single change in the benefit system does not affect gender equality. Achieving equality required and still requires decades of development of the benefit-and-service system based on the overarching principle of equality. In sum, the results are sensitive to the context of where the experiment takes place. 4.1. Too Universalising Discussions On the basis of our findings, we argue that the previous academic discussion revolving around UBI is too universalising and does not pay sufficient attention to national contexts. Theoretical reasoning has been universalised in two ways. First, it has often been based on philosophical argumentation without links to any specific social context or welfare state. Second, if it has some links to existing welfare state models, it most often has been Anglo-American, that is, the liberal welfare state [50], which has formed an institutional context wherein the would-be UBI is submersed (however, see [9,21,22,43]). Nevertheless, the results have been, almost without exception, interpreted to apply universally to all welfare states. Each welfare state is a unique institutional entity with its own historical and political background and, consequently, its own institutional context. Thus, we can assume that expected beneficial or detrimental gendered outcomes are different between a country with low gender equality and an established gender-equal welfare state, such as Finland. The institutional context is important, and institutions travel badly. Therefore, the results of the experiments are not directly transferable to other countries. However, we, too, end up with a few universalising comments or, if you like, lessons from the Finnish UBI experiment. In all societies, minimum income protection, either UBI or Finnish residence-based universal basic security, is a necessary condition for fulfilling the grand goals advocated by the protagonists of the basic income concept. However, this is not a sufficient condition to achieve these goals. In addition, we need an amplitude of family policy measures, such as available and affordable childcare, and we need well-functioning healthcare, education, and employment services to support people and societies in their path towards gender equality. Hence, gender equality cannot be achieved by a single social policy measure. The achievement of more equal societies requires several measures that consistently seek to promote that value. A decent level of money is a necessary but insufficient condition for empowering people. As Koslowski and Duvander [39] outline, ‘Money, a floor to stand on, surely helps [to procure freedom], but it will not alone be likely to challenge norms, for example, around parenting practices’. When we want people to change their behaviour to meet shared societal norms, we need different policies that are sufficiently effective to change the practices that produce gender inequality.