How can basic income help alleviate inequalities between women and men? This is the question we have asked the editor and communication expert Carme Porta. He has been a former deputy and worked in the Secretariat of Citizens' Rights and Family Policies of the Generalitat of Catalonia, where he served as judicial secretary. He is a member of the committee that has presented in the HEB Parliament, the Guaranteed Income of Citizenship. According to Porta, equality of rights between men and women can be guaranteed neither through the Guaranteed Income for Citizenship nor through universal income. Income takes account of the economic aspect and gender differences do not under any circumstances have an exclusively economic basis. However, having a fixed monthly income would lead women to another position.

A quarter of the Catalan population is declared to be in poverty, and women (43.5%) are more exposed to it than men (39.8%). As for the age group, women over 65 years of age present a higher risk of social exclusion. They
are followed by single-parent families, children and dependants mujeres.Las economic measures such as the Guaranteed Income for Citizenship would serve to alleviate the worst situations of women, to avoid extreme poverty. In addition, it opens the possibility of advancing the empowerment of women and they would gain social recognition as citizens with all rights. The fact of having a higher level of economic autonomy allows women to make freer decisions.

Porta says that women would escape from many situations: “It can serve to flee machista violence, to avoid low wages, to look for another job... Economic poverty and social invisibility have made women lack real freedom of choice in life, and inequalities are hardened.” Unemployment and job insecurity would be reduced, as a working woman with income in her hand could make decisions to her liking in the near future. Income would be personal, and in this sense, unlike the traditional family structure, women would become visible. Women have had the main task of caring for the house and its family members, and from an economic point of view they have not been taken into account. Fixed income would give it another position.

The Citizens' Guaranteed Income proposal is included in the Catalan Statute, but neither the Government nor the Parliament have developed it. It is requested for over 18 years, 650 euros a month, paying 12 times a month. Carme Porta reminds us of a Mexican practical experience. In the capital, Mexico D. F.en Retirees receive basic income.