A BIG Response To Wollstonecraft's Dilemma: Laura Bambrick
A BIG Response To Wollstonecraft's Dilemma: Laura Bambrick
A BIG Response To Wollstonecraft's Dilemma: Laura Bambrick
Laura Bambrick*
Abstract
How should the social rights of citizenship be extended to women? Should their
peculiar destination as mothers be recognised? Or should it be on the same terms as
men? This difference versus equality debate is known as Wollstonecrafts Dilemma.
A male breadwinner welfare state supports womens work in the home and thus
gender differences whereas an adult worker welfare state encourages their work
outside of the home and hence sameness. Relying on womens position in either the
family or in the workforce as a conduit for promoting female wellbeing has had mixed
results. Could a Basic Income Guarantee (BIG) improve on this? Commentators are
divided. This paper presents these critiques in an attempt to ascertain the potential of
a BIG to resolve Wollstonecrafts Dilemma. It accepts that welfare models are
designed to secure more than the right to work in the home or labour market.
Accordingly, it considers the effects of a BIG on each of the six normative reasons for
providing welfare to promote autonomy, social equality, social integration, social
stability, and economic efficiency, as well as to prevent poverty and the potential
consequences for womens welfare.
Introduction
*
The views expressed in this paper are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the position
of the OReilly Foundation.
Accounts of the roles different social groups played in paving the way for the
emergence of the modern welfare state were slow to acknowledge womens
contribution. Irrespective of this late start, a substantial body of work now exists
documenting the significance of womens groups and gender issues in bringing about
its existence and shaping its development (see Block and Thane 1991 for an overview;
Skocpol 1992 on the US case; Pedersen 1993 on the UK and France cases). Despite
their activism, when the battle to make the welfare state a reality was won women
became the indirect recipients of its largesse while men were the primary
beneficiaries. This was neither an accident nor a conspiracy. Instead, it stemmed
from the division in opinion over womens position in society, with the spilt not
neatly divided along gendered lines. That is, just as men lacked consensus on many
aspects of the welfare states nature, women too did not hold a common view. On no
other issue was this more evident than in how they wanted to be included into the
welfare state as workers or as mothers, in other words the same as or different to
men. A predicament Carol Pateman subsequently coined as Wollstonecrafts Dilemma
(2000 [1988]: 140-49). For a host of reasons, it was the supporters of the latter stance
who were victorious. Accordingly, the welfare state came to view women as
mothers who engaged in private duties and who derived their social rights via their
husband as his dependant. They were the opposite of men - independent workers
who contributed to the public good, and who had full and direct access to the social
rights endowed by the welfare state.
As part of a national strategy to increase their labour supply and fertility rates,
Scandinavian countries, in general, moved first and furthest away from this male
breadwinner (MB) arrangement towards an adult worker (AW) model. In this
approach to welfare delivery, both women and men are expected to participate in the
workforce, and its institutional framework is designed to achieve this end. For
instance, universally available, publicly provided child and eldercare removes the
obligation to care from women; the inevitable large state sector this creates provides a
source of employment; at the same time, tax individualisation favours dual income
couples. Hence, the dogma of gender difference was replaced by one of sameness,
and, in turn: the basis for womens social entitlements was transformed from that of
dependent wife to worker (Lewis 1992: 168-9). Scandinavian welfare states are
widely considered to be the most female friendly, in part because of their own
successes in improving womens social standing, but also as a consequence of the
plethora of research that has since exposed the inadequacies of the MB system for
women. Such studies have, for example, uncovered the hidden poverty of women in
households where income is withheld by the wage-earner (e.g. Daly 1992); recorded
how the lack of access to resources keeps women in abusive relationships (e.g.
Charles 2000); found the gender division of labour ideology to limit the earning
potential, career progression, and political advancement of those women who
participated in paid work instead of or along with motherhood (e.g. Daly and Rake
2003); highlighted how caring is less valued than employment, in terms of either
money or respect (Lister 2003), to name but a few of the adverse effects of the MB
arrangement. Indeed, such are the achievements of the AW model, and compounded
with changes in family composition and labour market structures, that increasing the
numbers of women in the workforce has become a public policy priority in the vast
majority of post-industrial countries.
autonomous but are instead dependent on those who control their access to resources,
and this dependency makes them susceptible to exploitation (Goodin 1988: 21).
The guaranteed income stream from a BIG would mean that:
[E]ach individual would have an independent income as the basis for
negotiating a paid and unpaid work role that no one could be coerced
into a job or a domestic responsibility out of dependence on another for
his or her basic resources (Jordan 1987: 160).
Women could choose to be primary caregivers while retaining financial independence.
Indeed, the benefit of a cash transfer free of a work-test would not be confined to
women. All wage-labourers would be empowered to exit the labour market
completely or to reduce the time they spend participating in it, according to their
preference (Ackerman and Alstott 1999: 211). But, some argued that, because it is
paid irrespective of a willingness to work, a BIG would substitute one form of
exploitation with another it is: a recipe for exploitation of the industrious by the
lazy (Elster 1987: 719). In response, it is proposed that the concept of work be
broadened to include more than just wage labour, given that the majority of the
voluntary unemployed are active in socially useful tasks (McKay 2001: 104-109) and
that a small minority of free-riders will exist with or without eligibility rules (Van
Parijs 2000).
Conversely, a BIG could be used to purchase services by women who want to move
from caring into paid employment, thus liberating them to follow their ambitions
(Walter 1989: 120). Elizabeth Anderson (2000) is unconvinced. Its flat-rate
payments, she notes, fails to acknowledge that citizens with a disability and/or caring
responsibilities require more assets to achieve the equivalent level of freedom enjoyed
by those who have neither a disability or dependants. Although children will be
entitled to a BIG, this observation does highlight the importance of making the childrate sufficient to cover caring costs if mothers are to be given a: real choice between
work inside or outside their home (Robeyns 2000: 131). In addition, it is point out
that while purchasing power will improve with a BIG there is no guarantee that the
supply of services will meet the demand. Jane Lewis, (2004: 10) warns that the:
neglect of service provision is likely to constrain womens choices. Tony Walters
(1989), however, is confident that the private market will respond adequately,
whereas, Ingrid Robeyns (2000) recommends caution and a complementary set of
public childcare initiatives. Nevertheless, caring does not inevitably have to shift to
either the market or the state. A BIG would give full-time employees the opportunity
to buy job-free time thus, creating a pool of potential (mostly male) carers within
families and the community, and in turn, improving the current gender imbalance in
caring.
A BIG offers all citizens a choice in how they spend their time caring, in
employment or at leisure, without the threat of exploitation or destitution. Social
roles would no longer be a public policy issue but a private decision.
Promoting Social Equality
For some an overriding benefit from a BIG is that it offers recognition for care labour
and to those who provide it. The introduction of this universal unconditional
payment, Carol Pateman (2003: 141) believes, would: change womens standing as
citizens since employment would be dethroned from its position as the only work that
really counts. Others are less enthused. Caring, they claim, is not especially valued
by a BIG, since it is paid to all regardless of whether the recipient is caring or not
(Lister 2003: 189). Nonetheless, the alternative - a caregivers allowance, while
specifically rewarding informal work would, as parental leave schemes internationally
illustrate, most likely be claimed by women. A major contributory factor for this
higher female take-up rate is that these allowances are not usually indexed to earnings
i.e. it costs more for men to abstain from paid work, because of their greater earning
potential. Hence, caregiver allowances: reinforces the view of such work as
womens work and consolidates the gender division of domestic labour (Fraser 1997:
58). Whereas a BIG, albeit set at a flat-rate, is paid to each family member and so
would cushion a drop in the households total income and thus, facilitate
breadwinners (mostly male) in reducing their employment. The opportunity for men
to spend more time caring and for women to pursue their career will be greater than is
currently the case.
This optimistic assessment is questioned by Judith Carlson (1997: 8) who concurs that
a BIG would allow men a short working week, but reasons that there is no guarantee
that they will in turn use this job-free time to contribute to the unpaid labour in the
household and community. And so, caring would be no less feminised under a BIG
than with a caregivers allowance. In a similar vein, it is suggested that the option a
BIG offers to refuse employment is likely to be embraced more by women than men
(Fitzpatrick 1999: 167). Ingrid Robeyns (2000: 132) warns against the negative
consequences a weakening of womens attachment to the labour market would have
for those women who retain a commitment to employment. Individual women, she
concludes, will find it difficult to get hired, trained, or promoted because employers
will be conscious of their propensity to withdraw from the workforce. There is then
the possibility that this would exacerbate the present gender imbalance in positions of
authority, to the detriment of all women i.e. advocates of women being more like men
consider female participation in the public sphere to be instrumental in getting and
keeping their concerns on the political agenda. These arguments, however, run
counter to the emerging men-studies literature, which suggests that mens workcentred behaviour is the result of the current work culture, fiscal considerations, social
policies, etc as opposed to reflecting their preference (see Burgess and Graeme 2003).
Paying a BIG irrespective of being in the workforce or outside of it will not in itself
be enough to promote social equality. For this, it is vital that both women and men
embrace its potential for adopting a work-care mix. While a BIG does not address the
female bias in care labour directly, it does strengthen the bargaining hand of men to
care more and work less, and for women to do the opposite.
What is implied by the term social exclusion is widely disputed. Despite differences
in opinion, it is generally held to encapsulate more than just income poverty (Giddens
1998: 105). Burchardt et al. (2002: 31) regard individuals to be social excluded when
they cannot partake in one or more of four key social activities:
Consumption the capacity to purchase goods and services
Production participation in economically or socially valuable activities
Political Engagement involvement in local or national decision-making
Social Interaction integration with family, friends and community
The more people excluded from these realms, the less integrated a society will be, and
the greater the likelihood of civil unrest.
Tony Atkinson (1995: 75) notes that one of the reasons why a BIG: enjoys support
from a wide constituency is that it is viewed as a means of preventing social
exclusion. For example, an independent income for women is shown to be an
effective measure in alleviating child poverty, because mothers spend a greater
proportion of their income on their children, relative to fathers (Pahl 1989: 171).
Tackling child poverty reduces the risk of children partaking in the types of behaviour
- low education attainment, crime, early parenthood, etc that contributes to exclusion
continuing into adulthood (Kiernan 2002: 96). Furthermore, a BIG would provide
the: material basis for effective political particaption. Guaranteed an income,
citizens would have the time to be politically active from running for candidate,
over working in party offices to canvassing the streets on behalf of political
candidates (Dowding, De Wispelaere and White 2003: 16). The same would be true
for greater involvement in family and community activities, so increasing social
interaction.
Yet, a significant weakness with a BIG as an instrument for promoting social
inclusion is that: benefits based on citizenship can provide the basis for exclusion of
non-citizens and that such policies: have been recognized as being ill-equipped to
deal with an age of large-scale and heterogeneous migratory movements (Kofman et
al 2000: 144 and 77). The over-representation of women entering countries through
family reunions, a proviso of which in many states is no recourse to public funds,
makes this shortcoming more pertinent for women. In addition to issues surrounding
entitlement, it is argued that: simple being given cash does not by itself make
someone part of mainstream society (Hill 2002: 227). A BIG provides the means but
it will be each citizens responsibility to grasp the opportunity their payment affords
them to be socially active.
Some commentators contend that social exclusion will be best countered through the
integration of both women and men into paid work, i.e. making women like men (see
The Commission for Social Justice 1994). Others regard changing work patterns, e.g.
female employment, as contributing to the demise of social networks (see Putnam
2000). A BIG offers a solution complimentary to these diverging opinions. It allows
for greater numbers to participate in paid work and to reduce the time they spend
therein. Moreover, both women and men will be in a position to partake in public and
private, local and national, social and economic social activities. No realm will be the
preserve of a particular sex.
expanding the numbers or adding to its demise. It is however worth noting that
families do not have to be of the traditional variety for society to reap the benefits.
Indeed, the nuclear family is believed by some to be detrimental to female wellbeing
(see Barrett and McIntosh 1982). With a BIG groups of individuals could form
collectives/families and enjoy the benefits of economies of scales without anyone
having to surrender their statutory entitlement.
Promoting Economic Efficiency
A healthy economy is widely held to be a prerequisite for advancing human welfare.
As such, it is imperative that the economy is supported in ways that enable it to
operate efficiently. The concern of a high volume of the BIG literature is with its
expected influence on productivity. For some, Claus Offe (1992: 75) observes, the
preoccupation is with the work-shyness they fear an unconditional BIG will
encourage. In contrast, others insist that a preference for employment would
continue, because a BIG while being sufficient for subsistence would be moderate
(Janson 2000: 10). Also, since it would not be withdrawn from those who accept a
job, barriers such as poverty and employment traps would be removed. It is further
proposed that, in providing for basic needs a BIG: has a direct wage subsidizing
effect. Employers could create more jobs since work currently left undone because it
costs more to do than it is worth would become viable (van der Veen 2003: 168). In
addition, individuals might use the income security to establish their own business
venture or as an opportunity to acquire new skills (van der Veen 2003: 168). Thus,
workers could move from work to education and back to work many times during
their working life a vital requirement in todays knowledge-based economies (Van
Parijs 2002: 357).
While it is argued that the BIG will not have a negative effect on the economy overall,
it is conceded that mothers of young children will be particularly susceptible should a
corresponding flat-rate tax be implemented, as is popularly recommended, to fund a
BIG (Clark 2002: 20). Currently, the earnings of many (short) part-time workers, the
majority of whom are women in all European countries, are exempt from tax and
social security contributions. If all additional income is taxable at a uniform rate this
could possibly lead to them exiting the labour market completely, or alternatively,
conspiring with employers in not declaring their earnings to the tax authorities. In the
latter situation, the revenue pool for funding a BIG would be smaller and so the taxrate would be higher than necessary. Moreover, women would be unprotected by
employment legislation in the black economy and a worsening of their employment
conditions is highly probable. Nonetheless, Tony Walter (1989: 122) argues that the
inclusion of women into the tax system is an important component in advancing
gender equality in the workplace. In the other scenario, this would cause a decline in
the size of the workforce, and subsequently inflate the price of wages. Yet, it is
reasoned that even if the fall in the female labour supply were significant this would
not damage economic efficiency, as the majority would inevitably move into the
social economy. As Al Sheahen (2003: 8) points out:
[W]hat is work? Just a Job? Or anything thats productive? Is a
volunteer at a hospital less productive than the same person on an
(Clark 2002: 20). Although, there is nothing preventing minimum wage legislation
being enforced alongside a BIG.
Paying a BIG to individuals, as a means of tackling poverty, would provide all
citizens with direct access to the resources to meet their basic needs whatever their
connection to the labour market. Nonetheless, in Western societies the concern is less
with absolute poverty providing the essentials for survival and more on relative
poverty closing the income gap between individuals and groups. How effective a
BIG will be in closing the gender earnings gap will depend on the extent to which the
payment is used by men to undertake more caring work and by women to participate
more in paid labour.
Conclusion
Reforming the welfare state so that social entitlements are paid directly to both
women and men, irrespective of their employment status would resolve
Wollstonecrafts Dilemma. The debate over how full citizenship rights are to be
extended to women the same as or different to men; as workers or as mothers
would no longer hold any relevance. A BIG, however, has more to offer. It would
also reshape the concept of citizenship.
At present, the MB and AW models take masculine work patterns (continuous, fulltime employment) as their reference point. In the MB arrangement women are
viewed as different from men carer-citizens as opposed to worker-citizens, while in
the AW welfare state women are encouraged to behave the same as men workercitizens. Today, in both welfare models, large numbers of women combine the
breadwinner and caregiver roles. A BIG extends the opportunity to make this workcare mix the norm for men as well as women. It puts men in a position to behave the
same as women. Moreover, in achieving this fusion of gender roles into one workercarer citizen ideal womens overall wellbeing, as measured against Goodins six
welfare functions, need not be compromised.
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