How the International Women's March Can Bring About Real Change

Women of the world are striking on March 8, International Women's Day. Organisers are calling for women to take the day off paid or unpaid work, refrain from shopping, and wear red. Gender stereotypes aside (no, this doesn't prove women only care about vacation, clothes, and shopping), what is this strike attempting to achieve, and will it work?

We have Trump to thank. That's right, yet another white-orange man taking credit for women's good work. But it took a "pussy-grabber" in the White House to galvanise women into action. The day after his inauguration day, women donned pussy-hats and marched in their millions around the globe. The power was palpable: women make up over 50 percent of the population, and we're pissed. However, in classic Occupy Wall Street style of protest, the call to action was lost. The objective wasn't as concrete as a demand to depose the President of the United States through sheer force of pussy-hats pounding the streets, and instead a wide-ranging list of women's rights concerns were set out. With the United Nations finding 1 in 3 women are subjected to physical or sexual violence, we have to figure out, specifically and simply, what to do about it.

Strikes can be effective. New Zealand women were the first in the world to win the right to vote, in part thanks to labour unions calling for strikes. New Zealand women have led protest movements similar to strikes, such as Whina Cooper's epic march down the length of the North Island to protest on-going Maori land alienation. In both instances, New Zealand women presented petitions to support their protests, with hundreds of thousands of signatures supporting a clear call to action. Unity was backed by a demand. This is the first key challenge facing the upcoming strike. Next Wednesday, the International Women's Day strike is backed not by a single demand, but a series of questions: We ask: do businesses support our communities, or do they drain our communities? Do they strive for gender equity or do they support the policies and leaders that perpetuate oppression? Do they align with a sustainable environment or do they profit off destruction and steal the futures of our children? We saw what happened when millions of us stood together in January, and now we know that our army of love greatly outnumbers the army of fear, greed and hatred. On March 8th, International Women's Day, let's unite again in our communities for A Day Without A Woman.

Aside from a clear call to action, another key to the success of a strike is the economic feasibility for women to actually participate. The "Women's Day Off" in Iceland in 1975 is often touted as the poster-child for effective feminist action. 90 percent of the female population refused all forms of work in the office and at home, and took to the streets in protest against the low numbers of women in government. Within five years, Iceland's government was headed by the world's first democratically elected woman president, who led her country for the following 16 years. But Iceland's strike took place in an economic context where, striking women reportedly did not lose annual leave, did not lose pay, and most importantly, did not lose their jobs. In 2016, the situation for many women is different.

These two points, the lack of a clear single call to action and the fact that women with (low paid) jobs literally cannot afford to strike, reveals the increasingly complex context for feminism today.
Respecting the intersectionality of identities leads to multiple priorities, depending on your vantage point in society. Māori women have been instrumental in putting indigenous experience at the foreground of the debate. New Zealand has had the great honour of electing the first trans-woman into government. Respecting the diverse priorities of different women can nullify attempts to identify a single simple call to action, which is why the 2017 Day Without A Woman manifesto starts by asking questions and leaves it to us to find the answers.

The economic imperative is closely bound-up with the question of intersectionality and identity. Socio-economic privilege is tied to race. Māori prison numbers and state housing statistics show the enduring impact of economic subjugation. And as a result, minority women are far more likely to be holding down multiple low paying jobs while a white woman preaches in an op-ed about feminism.

New Zealand women have an opportunity on March 8 to call for yet another contribution to our proud little list of "feminist world firsts". While Trump presides over an economy where women are routinely paid 20 percent less for the exact same work, New Zealand is heading into an election year where a central question for voters relates to equal pay for comparable work. We are asking ourselves questions like, why are mostly low paid jobs (such as care work) taken up by mostly women?

In May last year, the government-appointed Joint Working Group issued its recommendations on Pay Equity Principles, and by December the Government announced plans to empower women to file pay equity claims directly with their employers, rather than having to go through the courts. Our political parties are yet to confirm if gender quotas will be implemented in the upcoming 2017 election campaign to ensure 50 percent of candidates are women. These types of specific demands for the local context are exactly what the organisers of the strike are aiming to allow space for. Countries like New Zealand have space to jump on the world stage and lead the conversation demanding more concrete outcomes that highlight intersectionality and economic justice for women.

There is a lot to celebrate in the advancement of women this International Women's Day. It is now socially acceptable to reject mansplaining and manterrputing at work and at home. Women at the highest echelons of power are publicly sharing information on "amplification" techniques for women to back each other up in the office. But honestly, it has always been about the money, and it's always been about destroying the concept that the world is for any one gender or identity in particular.

To celebrate International Women's Day VICELAND and the Women's Collective are transforming the Princess Ballroom at Auckland's Pullman Hotel into a mass-scale air bed cinema on March 8, for a special marathon screening of Gloria Steinem's emmy-nominated VICELAND series, WOMAN. Win tickets here.  

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