This Wednesday, women from more than 30 countries are going on strike.
Last month, a diverse group of feminist activists and academics announced the plan for an international strike on March 8th in an op-ed for the Guardian.They called for what was later named A Day Without a Woman: a mass mobilization of "women, including trans women, and all who support them in an international day of struggle."
The organizers hope to achieve "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." With this protest, the organizers are also aiming to achieve "feminism for the 99 percent," to represent the women that "lean-in feminism ignored," the women working in the formal labor market, in social reproduction and care, and the unemployed.
Now the day of the strike is quickly approaching, and throughout the world women and their allies are being called to action, ready to ring in this year's International Women's Day with an international strike. A map of planned protest activity depicts an Earth splattered with pinpoints representing 250 locations. The planned protest activities are broad in scope, and the size of each varies by locale. However, one thing resonates across all: the notion that women are here, women are powerful, and women will demand for what is right. What should scare the old guard most is that all these women know each other; they are connected by both the internet and shared goals and are creating an international coalition of resistance. Broadly spoke to organizers of women's strikes in Argentina, Australia, Sweden, Germany, Ireland, the US, and Thailand to learn about the connections that have created such an international movement, what they are striking for on Wednesday, and what they hope happens next.
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