Coordinator's Note: All the women interviewed want a Guaranteed Livable Income for everyone; however, they also recognize that women face more poverty, stress, violence, unpaid and underpaid work, while also carrying primary responsibility and worry for the well-being of the world's children

MAIN POINTS
( from interviews)

1. A GLI would create a new level of equality and quality of life

2. A GLI would acknowledge and value unpaid care work

3. Liberation through changing the economic system

4. Mothers would be able to be with their children
and everything would be easier for mothers

5. Women would be less vulnerable to violence; more ability
to leave abusive or violent relationships

6. More ability for women to organize and
be involved in political processes

7. A GLI makes it easier for women to leave the sex trade;women
not forced into prostitution out of economic necessity

8. Fewer dangerous situations due to economic desperation;
more safety for all women

9. Men might have to be nicer

10. It would take the pressure off women about how they look

11. Women would not be measured according to free market
indicators, ideology and political whims

12. It would acknowledge that capitalism (in all its forms)
runs on the unpaid labour of women

Benefits for Women - Quotes

Did women create the system? No, I don't think they had any part of it, and that is the major problem: they weren't included, weren't even recognized. Obviously it costs women more than anyone in society because they are the ones to actually bear the burden of bearing the children and raising the children. Quite honestly, I don't see the majority of men doing it. -Faith

I look at [GLI] as recognition for work in the home, especially for women who are looking after their children. It means that somebody appreciates the work they are doing; they are being recognized. -Evelyn

As a society we should do all we can to alleviate the stress of mothers. -Elizabeth

It's has to do with money. We need money to live; we have to have enough, and a GLI would make it so much easier for mothers. -Cecia

Women could have a family life, especially women without husband or income, especially women new to Canada. I see a lot of young women who want to have children but can't afford to have children. It is hard for women to have a job and kids at the same time. -Anna

If women want to be at home, they should be supported to be at home. They don't pay family members to care for people with disabilities, but other people can be paid big bucks to do that job. -Samantha

It would relive stress, give women dignity and ability to plan. Women would probably be able to triple their GLI, because women are really creative and able to make a dollar work more than it should. Just feeling equal and not inferior is really important. -Bernice

With a GLI, there would be a much stronger unity of mothers, which means stronger, healthier children. Mothers who are isolated will become more united with other women in the community, because they will realize they are not alone. It would enhance communication with women in cities. They will become aware of their own power, how they can be instrumental in creating changes for not only themselves but also their community.   -Rose

Mothers at home? I know what that is like; it is not a menial job. People don't realize what you have to do in a day. For women there would be freedom and independence [with a GLI]. For so many women I've known, their husbands control the income and just give the wives an allowance. -Olive

[With a GLI] women would have an income that wasn't dependent on a man. Women's safety would benefit, choosing whether or not to stay in relationships. Women wouldn't have to do prostitution, either in marriage or outside of it. Women would have a way to live with children that wouldn't depend on a relationship with a man. -Samantha

The GLI would free up the women from abusive situations; they would not have dependency on partners or husbands. They would be able to leave when they want and would be guaranteed a livable income and would not have to subject themselves or their children to violence and abuse and so on. That would be one great thing for women. You would not have to resort to selling yourself or going homeless. -Ruth

Women's safety is a big issue, especially for women considered disenfranchised based on skin colour, age, or abilities. There is economic violence on women. This is happening to women, and that affects everybody. A GLI would decrease the violence if women felt they had an avenue to leave the violence, and if they knew there were community members who wouldn't judge them. -Rose

Think of some of the women in the Downtown East Side [in Vancouver]. If they had had a GLI, maybe some would have been saved. Instead, [the government] was more than willing to spend $10 million after they were murdered. Why is no money spent on prevention?-Claire

The work is there to be done; the women are doing it regardless of GLI or not.   But it would allow women to hire someone else to do that work, or if they wanted to stay home, they wouldn't be penalized for it. The paid work out there is not so great that people are so eager to do it for its own sake anymore. When a woman is at the mercy of her working husband, in a poverty situation, the husband is in a frazzle and resents his family because it looks like they are doing nothing. Family stresses are set up; he controls the money and the woman is like his employee. GLI would put women on an equal footing to stay home or not stay home. A lot of women are staying in abusive situation because they can't afford to leave. That would be put to an end quickly. -Jennifer

Women wouldn't have to worry about stretching their limited incomes to meet their needs each month. It would allow women to have a little room to breathe. (Keep the dogs from howling at the door.) When I was poor and on welfare, a single parent, every month the same questions came up, would there be enough money to feed us all month? Would I be able to pay the heating bill? If any small problem occurred-lost coat, lost bus pass, or rent increase-it was a major disaster because there was no way to recover the loss. Over a period of months and years, disasters do occur and clothing and towels and sheets and furniture wear out and welfare benefits and low wages cannot cover the cost of these things (let alone rent and food) and protect families. So you are always on edge, worrying, balancing, negotiating, trying to make ends meet. A GLI would alleviate the stress by proving a stable, livable income. Women and children would have a healthy environment to live in and they would know that they are valued rather than vilified by society. -Susan

Women could be more confident because of not having to submit to places they don't want to be, where they've been beaten down, even if not directly. Better health, to be able to buy more food and better nutrition... Even if they still live marginal lifestyles, they would not have to be so vulnerable to discrimination and ignorance from society. They could have safer situations, even if they were still working in the sex trade. Hopefully, women wouldn't have to do that, but they could have safer, healthier working conditions. They wouldn't be as looked down upon. -Aletheia

With GLI there will be a lot less prostitution, and it will be less risky and more healthy, way safer. People take risks when they are oppressed and need the money, and why do you have men going to find women on the streets in the first place? Shame is built into this economic system. With a GLI, can you imagine, Holy mackerel! -Kym

Because of cultural issues [in Mozambique], women don't own land. If parents die, they don't have ownership of anything, even their children; they belong to the husband. If we can empower the women to have ownership so they don't need to sell their body and come back sick and die.... If they can have money to buy land and start a small business, because if you feed a woman, you feed the whole family. If you help a woman, you help the whole family. That idea is really, really important, and GLI can really play a big part. -Perpetua

With a GLI women wouldn't get caught in the marriage trap. When they can't find work after finishing high school, the first guy that comes around-off they go-and then they have a baby, and next thing you know, the man is gone and she's on welfare with one or two kids. A GLI would allow women to get out of a bad marriage without being beaten to death. -Mary B

I think a GLI in the short term would make a really big difference. Women wouldn't be economically challenged and would not have to stay with abusive partners, whether it is a female or male partner who is doing the abusing. -Dawn

For a high percentage of women in violence, it is in their own homes. But when they are at such a low poverty level, they end up staying in their home because they can't afford to leave it. There are not enough transition homes, so where else are they going to go? And there is still a huge stigma to leaving your home, even if there is violence in it, because we are still supposed to make it work. If there was a higher income, maybe women would feel more stability to leave. -Debie

You are always going to have some sex work; a GLI is not a cure-all. But it would certainly slow down the process of the problems that we have right now and the number of women going in to it. Women take the risk of losing their kids, but they have to do this to feed their kids or get an education. So the population of sex trade workers would drop significantly with a GLI. This would increase the earning level and make a safer environment for those who still are working in the sex trade.
-Mary C

Once a woman enters the sex trade, that has pretty much stigmatized her for life-having a police record, and the shame of trying to get past the impacts of that. Women enter the sex trade to support their families; it's a proven fact.   And if women had the opportunity to live a life that is not so below the poverty line and stay home, they would not enter the sex trade. That is a huge one, especially for Aboriginal women. With a GLI, that impact on society alone would be tremendous. -Suzanne

Women could afford to be with their kids at night instead of going on the street to sell their body, so they can have their dignity. It is very, very important. -Perpetua

If women are in the sex trade and are thinking about getting out of it, knowing they have the money would definitely help. It might be the extra nudge to help them get out of doing that. -Sasha

A GLI would stop a lot of violence in the community. When women objectify themselves, offering their body parts, they are divorcing themselves from their complete spiritual wholeness and doing something to their psyche that will have an impact on them forever. This translates into violence against women, because men see women offering themselves and they assume that other women will do that as well. This extends into advertising too, the scantily clad women, Cosmo magazine looks like Playboy looked liked I was a kid. A GLI would help end prostitution. I think relations between men and women could be egalitarian, even though we live in a society that doesn't encourage that. Sex is an expression of love and should never be exploited, but I understand that women get in positions where they feel they don't have any options, and I'd support anything that would provide them with other viable options.   If women had a GLI, then they might feel like they have other options [than to work in the sex trade]. And if men feel threatened by the idea that a woman can choose, maybe they could turn into nicer guys and they could get some for free [laughter]. -Janine