Research Session with Hana Beach

Hana Beach is a fellow at JFI. She presented at a Friday research session on the history of feminist thought on basic income. She traced feminist political movements for basic income, beginning with Juliet Rhys-Williams’ campaign for basic income and her appeal to feminists, before moving to a discussion of mid-twentieth century women’s movements that demanded an unconditional economic floor.

She then explored whether a basic income is good for women by outlining contemporary feminist debate on basic income. This debate includes discussion on the gender division of labor, comparisons to the Swedish style welfare state, and theoretical tools that help evaluate the merits of a gender equitable policy (see here, here, and here).

An interview with political theorist Almaz Zelleke on this history and literature is available here.