On January 21st millions of people came together for the Women’s March on Washington and sister marches around the globe. Determined not to lose momentum, the organizers of the Women’s March have been using social media to announce an upcoming general strike, A Day Without a Woman, when “women and our allies will act together for equity, justice and the human rights of women, through a one-day demonstration of economic solidarity.” The strike is set for March 8th, International Women’s Day,
A Day Without a Woman will join the March 8th International Women’s Strike that was proposed by eight leading feminist figures earlier this month. In an op-ed in the Guardian, Linda Martín Alcoff, Cinzia Arruzza, Tithi Bhattacharya, Nancy Fraser, Barbara Ransby, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Rasmea Yousef Odeh, and Angela Davis proposed “feminism for the 99%,” starting with the strike. They stated:
While Trump’s blatant misogyny was the immediate trigger for the huge response on 21 January, the attack on women (and all working people) long predates his administration. Women’s conditions of life, especially those of women of color and of working, unemployed and migrant women, have steadily deteriorated over the last 30 years, thanks to financialization and corporate globalization.
Lean-in feminism and other variants of corporate feminism have failed the overwhelming majority of us, who do not have access to individual self-promotion and advancement and whose conditions of life can be improved only through policies that defend social reproduction, secure reproductive justice and guarantee labor rights. As we see it, the new wave of women’s mobilization must address all these concerns in a frontal way. It must be a feminism for the 99%.
As a first step, we propose to help build an international strike against male violence and in defense of reproductive rights on 8 March. In this, we join with feminist groups from around 30 countries who have called for such a strike.
The idea is to mobilize women, including trans women, and all who support them in an international day of struggle – a day of striking, marching, blocking roads, bridges, and squares, abstaining from domestic, care and sex work, boycotting, calling out misogynistic politicians and companies, striking in educational institutions. These actions are aimed at making visible the needs and aspirations of those whom lean-in feminism ignored: women in the formal labor market, women working in the sphere of social reproduction and care, and unemployed and precarious working women.
To learn more about A Day Without a Woman, head to the official website. Be sure to check out the International Women’s Strike website as well.
