nor does it automatically lead to womens empowerment or protect them from economic dependence to guarantee womens right to an adequate standard of living employment policies aimed at the generation and regulation of decent work have to be accompanied by social protection and social services that provide income security and enable people to live their lives in dignity the spf proposes a nationally defined set of minimum guarantees including basic income security for children workingage adults older people and people with disabilities as well as basic social services for all this initiative holds significant promise for women who are overrepresented among those excluded from existing social protection schemes on the one hand informal networks rely heavily on womens unpaid care and domestic work on the other hand womens own needs for support are rarely adequately acknowledged and addressed due to prevailing social norms and gender power relations examples abound of gender gaps in access to staterun social protection schemes and genderbiased delivery of social services