British Columbia must provide concrete options to leave prostitution, including a guaranteed livable income, safe affordable housing and addiction mental health services.
We believe that the application of Guaranteed Livable Income will ensure that no one, let alone Indigenous women, suffers from economic hardship and poverty.
As feminists we are demanding our fair share of the common wealth. The successes of the
feminist revolution is rooted in collectively insisting on 100% of what we want, making the
impossible, possible – for our desire for freedom makes Guaranteed Livable Income only a
minute step towards our vision of liberation
A Guaranteed Livable Income must be set high enough to meet adequate standards of living. It should provide all basic necessities such as a nutritious diet, safe adequate housing, transportation, and allow for discretionary spending to enhance full participation in community life.
Understanding that the poverty of women is an equality issue obligates the federal government to secure and ensure economic independence for the women in Canada
The BC CEDAW Group is a coalition of women’s non-governmental and non-profit British
Columbia organizations that are committed to advancing the equality interests of women
and girls.
Guaranteed Livable Income (GLI) was featured in
the first issue of MS. Magazine in 1972, where welfare activist Johnnie Tillmon stated: "Maybe we
poor welfare women will really liberate women in this country… . We put together our own welfare
plan, called Guaranteed Adequate Income, which would eliminate sexism from welfare."
Women in Canada expect full and generous provision for all people's basic needs from the common wealth. Social and collective provision for sustaining life must be generous and secure in Canada and must be delivered through national mechanisms appropriately influenced and controlled by the women of our many specific communities.
By Lee Lakeman, Angela Miles, and Linda Christiansen-Ruffman
