Covid-19 and gender inequality: a case for universal basic income
In a purely organic, biological world, we could say a virus is quite democratic. It chooses no gender or skin color, it knows no geographic borders. It is in the air for all to breathe — an idealistic Tower of Babel, that even the most progressive activist wouldn’t dare to imagine. Well, it’s not needed to say we do not live in an organic world, not anymore. We live in the world of men, ruled by artificial concepts and systems such as money, property, countries — and plastic, tons of plastic.
Covid-19 exposed the deep inequalities existing in our society, where the ones that will die are mostly poor, black, indigenous. Economic instability hits millions of people that are now on the edge of poverty. In this artificial men’s world in crisis, women might be the ones that are mostly affected economically. Women already suffer from structural discrimination, that goes from a gender pay gap to lack of political representation. However, the Covid-19 pandemic brought to light a different side of gender inequality.
Brazil is the ninth biggest economy in the world. It’s also the country where 18,4 million people do not have access to running water to wash their hands for the entire duration of Gloria Gaynor’s ‘I will survive’ chorus. The largest South American nation can exemplify women’s vulnerability during the pandemic: 5,5 million children do not have a father’s name registered in their birth certificate. A recent study has also showcased the high discrimination women suffer in the job market: 51% of women with less education cannot find formal work after giving birth. We can imagine the deep financial instability that the combination of those realities, a single mother without formal work, can produce.
As Patricia Schulz writes in her article Universal basic income in a feminist perspective and gender analysis: “Women pay a high price for providing the largest part of care work in the home, as this limits the access or choices of girls to education and the access of women to paid work, deprives them of the autonomy that goes with an income and the protection of social security systems when one is in place, and thus exposes them to the risk of poverty and dependence.”
Care-focused feminism has critically pointed out how caring is socially engendered, being assigned to women, and consequently devalued. It’s something that on different levels affects all women. From a middle-class family home in Sussex to a single mother household in a Rio de Janeiro’s favela, women are the ones present and active in providing support and assistance to the vulnerable in their social circle: from children to the elderly, from direct family to extended family.
Capitalist society rewards a version of knowledge and skills defined by a male, Eurocentric, white perspective. Technology is what is produced by machines and their owners, not the hands that can differentiate a herb that will kill you from one which can cure your sore throat. Knowledge usually connected with women, from how to take care of a newborn child to curandeiras do bairro’s (neighborhood’s healers) wisdom are not valid. Obviously, not all women experience the responsibilities of care in the same way.
A lot has been discussed about the emancipation of the white woman through the exploration of black and immigrant women. A working mother in Sussex is only able to achieve economic independence by paying a low wage to a less privileged member of the same sex. In Brazil, it is not uncommon to find a black skin housekeeper working in a white middle-class home. There are over six million domestic workers in the country, of that 92% are women and 71% are black.
On top of gender inequality, those women are crossed by intersectionalities of oppression, from ethnicity to class. According to data collected by Agência Pública between 11 and 26 of April, deaths by Covid-19 in Brazil have increased 5 times among black people, and 1,5 times among white people. The scenario is not that different in countries with similar social and ethnic apartheid such as the United States. We must not be insensitive to those numbers, and part of that is to demand public measures that will address our unequal reality.
We are not only living a public health crisis, but also an economic one. An economic crisis that will affect men and women, black and white people differently. Health and economic aspects are interconnected, since many risk their physical wellness to work as they need to provide food and shelter to themselves and the ones they care for. In the case of women rejected by the job market after becoming mothers, non regularized work is the only option, leaving them and their families with no social protection.
Women are usually the ones performing activities not valued by capitalism yet essential for the well being of our society, caring for others, and being responsible for a single household income: they cannot afford not to work. They chose to face an invisible enemy opposing public health measures because there is no other way.
Indeed, governments have come with temporary financial support during the Covid-19 pandemic, yet it might not be enough. In several countries, the bureaucracy is such that financial support has not been authorized yet, months after Covid-19 cases have risen. Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro, at least until 13th May when this article was written (and almost 3 months after the first case of the virus was confirmed in the country), has not yet authorized emergency financial support for 17 million people.
A universal basic income would not only be an attempt to even gender inequality and lack of recognition of caring activities but, as we are seeing in this pandemic crisis, it could also be a life-saving measure for many women and their dependents. As specialists point that other pandemics might be part of a short-term future, considering our predatory relationship with the environment and an intense process of globalization, millions of women and their families cannot afford to wait for financial support.
And when conservatives ask where would the money for a universal basic income come from, just close your eyes and pick ten out of the 2.095 billionaires existing in the world at this moment. Unsurprisingly, gender inequality is also present at the top of the pyramid: women make 11,7% of the total number of billionaires, according to a 2018 research. However, neither those women nor men will generously empathize with the billions of people in economic distress. We must demand heavily taxation of big fortunes and start a redistribution of resources.
We are living unprecedented times for our generation, times of immense suffering but also of great opportunities for change. We should reflect as a society and pressure our governments for public measures that will protect the most vulnerable. Progressive political narratives must be discussed now, when the current political and economical system is so clearly failing people desperately in need. Women have historically been enablers of revolutions and progressive action, and as a consequence of women’s caring net, they have a special influence in society. Women birthed the world of men, and women should be able to live in it with equal dignity.
