Coordinator's Note: The word "choice" was used frequently during interviews, especially for the ability to choose meaningful work. One interviewee said it was great that women fought for access to jobs, but now it is no longer a choice. Women are forced into jobs because they need the money; many women have two or three jobs, in addition to raising their children. This lack of productive choice has left women exhausted.

MAIN POINTS
( from interviews)

1. Choice to raise your own kids;
to work in the home or outside of it

2. More ability to choose to provide care for family, friends or self

3. More ability to choose to start a family

4. Productive choice; ability to choose work that
does not conflict with your ethics

5. Ability to choose part time work

6. More choice and ability to live in smaller or rural communities

7. Choice to pool resources with others to create your own community

8. Choice to spread work out over your lifetime

9. Choice to do volunteer work

10. Ability to try out different kinds of work and skills;
to travel and learn about diverse cultures

11. Choice for more learning, education, and interests

12. More ability to find mentors or to be a mentor

13. Ability to spend more time with elders or mentors

14. Community choice to decide what is productive work
from the point of view of "us," not "me"

CHOICE - Quotes

I would love to look after my kids, but I can't. There is no choice. Ever since I was six years old, I wanted to be a stay-at-home mom. I would be most happy in my life if I could stay home and raise my kids. But there is no choice. I have to go to school, and I am now thousands of dollars in debt. -Meshum

Benefits of GLI for women? It gives them more freedom of choice. Now that I have a small pension, I can make choices based on quality of life instead of doing something I hate or something that takes hours away from my family because I have to have the money. A secure income gives me more flexibility. My choices are no longer based on financial fear and how to pay the shelter and feed the kids. I remember when I would be out of work, my whole focus was finding a job. I was stressed out. "How am I going to live? How am I going to get diapers?" Then when I'd get the job, I'd just be making ends meet, then trying keeping the job, too. I see a difference in my kids now that I am more relaxed. We had more emotional arguments when kids were younger than now, even though they are teenagers. Now I can sit down and reason with them. They are more relaxed because I am. -Brenda

Women want the option of raising their own children. -Samantha

It would transform women's choices around whether or not they can stay home to raise children. A GLI would eliminate a level of concern, and having that choice is so critical. -Jennifer

If you have a GLI, perhaps for those who choose to work outside the home, you could maybe have a 3 or 4-day work-week and engage in the other activities that have been hitherto considered unproductive but that are so essential to the human spirit; that nurtures us and keeps us healthy-emotionally, physically, spiritually and mentally. And how amazing that could be, just to have the opportunity to find our true motivation and our true inspiration and fulfillment. -Naomi

It would definitely increase options [for work], and that would only be for the best. In the early 1970's as you saw computers coming in and more jobs being automated, it looked like people were being freed up, not put out of work. We had the human potential movement, and we were very optimistic that soon we would be working part-time and pursuing our hobbies. -Jennifer

I think that is a woman's choice, whether to work in the home or not. I know some women who have fantastic education and experience, but they love children, and they know there is a certain time frame in their life when they can have and enjoy those children. They would prefer to do that until they and their children are ready for a change. There are women who love being mothers; not all people have children just to farm them out to daycare. Some people have to send their kids to daycare and some people don't. A GLI opens up more choices. It would definitely encourage a more positive value system. That is what it is all about: what would work for them or their family. Nowadays there is just a blanket system where you have to fit in and you are being controlled with limited choices. -Faith

Lots of people talk about wanting to be away from the urban setting, and with a GLI, they could make that happen. -Jessy

More choices, more free time. People would be more thoughtful of what is going on; more able to look at the world around them rather than trying to think about what to do about tomorrow. They would be out enjoying life a little bit more, and would take kids out to nature more. -Florence

It costs kids, too, when mothers are forced to go out to work and don't really have the choice about staying home and raising their child-which I think is awful, because that's one of the most important jobs. And that applies to men, too. -Dawn

My grandfather always said to me, whoever started the feminist movement must have been a man, because now not only do women have to do all the cooking and cleaning and taking care of the children, but they have to work 8 to 10 hours a day as well. So where's the liberation in that?   I get to go work and that's great; I get to have the choice. But now it's not just a choice; we are forced to. Providing income monthly and a choice of going to work or not and being able to raise your children would lead to reaching out to other people in the community, to other moms to join together to pool their resources I don't know what I did yesterday because I'm just running all the time. -Sasha

Women certainly wouldn't be staying in an abusive marriage because of the money, which is still very common because when women do leave, no matter what people say, it is still women and children that end up in poverty, not the men. You'd just have another choice. -Valerie

If we all had opportunity to do what we loved, the world would change overnight. Instead we are forced to be these little robots and be "productive." But it is not working and the system is failing. What's the solution? To me, a GLI. With GLI, each person can use our gifts instead of people being   stuck working where they're unhappy. Then the community is affected: crime increases, more illness, more hospitalization. -Olive

With the GLI, if you want to go live off the land and get a plough and horse and do crops, that is your choice. You are not excluding people. With a GLI, difference is okay. For me to live, I need a certain amount of technology. I need accessibility; I need electricity. For me, back to the land is not a solution. GLI lets people be the difference that they want, and make friends with who they want. If you want to go to school, go for it, or go into business, that's fine too. So many choices, and it is not about being left or right but about being human.   Equal opportunity, but you can still be different if your basic rights are taken care of. -Rachel

Women wouldn't be forced to participate in industries and businesses that they didn't morally agree with but are forced to do to support themselves. -Samantha

Spending is choosing, so the way we spend money as a government is a choice. What is life-sustaining? What enhances life on the planet?   What produces less toxic waste?   We consumers need to ask the same questions. -Valerie

It's not like giving a GLI and it disappears. It goes back into the economy. But it gives people a choice and a chance to say, "I'm going to buy locally, and something that is healthy." It's like each dollar is a vote for something that you believe in. For me it's a huge social value, not just to individuals. -Kathy

[We should be] encouraging and supportive of each other to look at other choices. That's where our power should be, but that's hard to do when we are not on a GLI. -Faith