ACT BIG Conference

Name: (DAY/TIME TBA) Beyond Survival Mode: Basic Income as a Path to Safety and Liberation
Start: 2025-06-05T04:00:01-0300
End: 2025-06-05T04:00:01-0300

Thursday June 5, 2025 TBA

I hope to take the conversation about gender-based violence and economic dependency deeper by exploring its complex manifestations in women's lives.
While we recognize that financial insecurity keeps women trapped in dangerous situations, my presentation aims to unpack the specific mechanisms of this entrapment—from sabotaged employment opportunities to coerced debt, damaged credit histories, and the impossible mathematics of starting over. By examining Basic Income Guarantee through the experiences of women, particularly queer women who face compound barriers, this presentation will illuminate how economic abuse operates as both control tactic and structural trap.

Where most discussions of GBV focus on immediate safety concerns, I hope to reveal the long-term economic ripple effects that continue to ensnare women long after leaving abusive situations. For women trying to rebuild financial independence while healing from trauma, for queer women navigating systems not designed with their relationships in mind, these economic aftershocks create recurring vulnerability cycles that conventional supports rarely address. My presentation will demonstrate how guaranteed income could fundamentally disrupt these cycles by providing the stable foundation necessary for genuine recovery and autonomy.

Through interactive elements like survivor journey mapping, policy design exercises, and advocacy discussions, I hope participants will gain practical tools for advancing BIG as a feminist intervention in their communities. My goal is to move beyond theory to concrete implementation strategies that center those most affected by both economic marginalization and gender-based violence. I believe that understanding economic security isn't just about financial stability—it's fundamentally about creating conditions where liberation from violence becomes possible.

Speakers

Parul Kanwar (She/They)

Parul Kanwar is a policy officer at the legislative assembly of Alberta and Alberta’s Top 30-under-30 recipient. She researches intersections of social justice, culture, and gender through community advocacy and policy development.

Thursday June 5, 2025 TBA

ACT BIG Conference

Parul Kanwar (She/They)

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