Universality is discrimination
Goldblatt 20, Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Technology Sydney and a Visiting Professor in the School of Law at the University (Beth, “Basic Income, Gender and Human Rights,” University of Oxford Human Rights Hub Journal, 3.1)
A basic income in a society where women have more limited access to paid work and social security than men might advance equality and address gender disadvantage by empowering women financially. Since women tend to be disproportionately represented among the poor, this is a compelling equality argument for a basic income. However, the universality of a basic income, while attractive in principle, is itself indiscriminate in treating all people in the society alike. It could therefore be seen as a formal equality measure, inadequate in addressing the structural disadvantages facing women. Young observes that ‘the (neo-) liberal goods of economic liberty and formal equality resound strongly for women – but they are loaded freight and also function to justify much of modern economic and social relations that are deeply oppressive and unequal for women’. 108 As a formal equality measure designed by its universal nature to give everyone an equal sum, those who start off more disadvantaged may not see their position significantly altered, and existing hierarchies of power and privilege may not be shifted.