Tamara Nair does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. The universal basic income debate has been raging for some years, with politicians and people hotly divided over the notion of their government paying every citizen a set amount of money on a regular basis, without requiring work to be completed.
Economic feasibility is a critical question for any government program, of course, and it is particularly relevant in the developing world, where universal basic income UBI has been suggested as a development tool. One reason that Southeast Asian countries, for example, have struggled to improve gender equality despite avowals of committment to the idea is increased economic insecurity, which has widened the gap between men and women and separated women from opportunities.
The number is significantly lower in better-off Brunei and Singapore. On the whole, women in these countries fare well enough compared to their peers in other developing regions in terms of literacy, employment, political participation and the right to organise. But this has not translated into greater gender equality. Here, heteronormativity reigns, dictating that men and women and only men and women; all other gender identities are discounted have distinct and complementary roles in life, from economics and education to politics.
Women are primarily seen as wives and mothers, a gender stereotype reinforced in both everyday experiences and in the theological texts of the main religions in the region. This process would start with something simple and seemingly uncontroversial : women being able to put food on the table. If women were provided with sufficient income to feed their families, it would translate into better nutrition, health and general well-being for children and others entrusted in their care , and by extension, their communities.
Southeast Asian women in poorer income brackets generally have access to very few jobs, outside of traditional occupations such as farming and housekeeping. And, today, even these jobs are threatened by climate change and a growing movement to ban the export of foreign domestic workers. Digitisation may lead to further unemployment among men, particularly in Southeast Asian manufacturing economies, exacerbating hunger and malnutrition.
