By Sarah Lafen
Impunity Watch Desk Reporter, North America
WASHINGTON D.C., United States — Last Wednesday, on the holiday designated International Women’s Day by the United Nations, the female activist group who organized the Women’s March on January 21 organized a strike by women in the workplace. Women across the nation skipped work, wore red to signify love and sacrifice, and refused to spend money to support the cause.
One thousand people gathered on a city block in New York City, and eventually moved to Trump International Hotel. According to the Women’s March on Washington group, 10 organizers were arrested in NYC for blocking traffic. In Providence, Rhode Island, the municipal court shut down because eight employees stayed home from work for the day. Schools in Alexandria, Virginia, Chapel Hill-Carrboro, North Carolina, and Prince George’s County, Maryland were all closed for the day due to the amount of teachers who skipped work.
Spokeswoman Cassady Findlay explained that organizers of the strike were inspired by the recent “Day Without an Immigrant” protests which were held last month. Findlay said that the goal of the strike was to highlight the effect of women on the United States’ socio-economic system, and would demonstrate how the work of women keeps communities and economies functioning. Findlay told reporters that “[women] provide all this value and keep the system going, and receive unequal benefits from it.”
Shannon Craine, of San Francisco, told reporters that while it was a diverse crowd, everyone was at the protest for the “same reasons.” Craine emphasized that everyone who attended the strike “care[s] about women’s rights” and that there are some things “[they] are just not willing to negotiate about.”
Conservative group Right2Speak is organizing a “positive counter-movement” to the strike. Right2Speak wants to encourage women to “to continue working, serving, giving, sharing and loving their communities, their families and their endeavors.” The group is also encouraging women to use the hashtag on social media #NotMyProtest and #WeShowUp accompanied by pictures of them working.
Protestors held signs reading “Resist like a girl” and “Power to the resisters forever!”
For more information, please see:
The New York Times — ‘Day Without a Woman’ Protest Tests a Movement’s Staying Power — 8 March 2017
USA Today — Conservative Group Counters #DayWithoutAWoman with #WeShowUP — 7 March 2017
