Life

Women’s Strike Wednesday, March 8: The Essentials

Women striking in 1968. Image by Getty Images

By Phoebe Maltz Bovy March 6, 2017

March is Women’s History Month, and on March 8th, International Women’s Day, there’s going to be a Women’s Strike, called “A Day Without A Woman.”* What does this mean? The Women’s March folks, who are organizing this as well, have the info:

Anyone, anywhere, can join by making March 8th A Day Without a Woman, in one or all of the following ways:

1. Women take the day off, from paid and unpaid labor

2. Avoid shopping for one day (with exceptions for small, women- and minority-owned businesses).

3. Wear RED in solidarity with A Day Without A Woman

In other words, you can take part even if you can’t get the day off. But if you can strike without risking your livelihood (and, ideally, in a way that involves handing off your tasks for that day to a man, not another woman), sounds like an excellent idea. Even those somewhat cringe-inducing stories of men who — horrors — had to do some weekend chores the day their wives went the Women’s March offered a hint of how even our absence can be political. For a deeper background on strike history, but aimed at a non-expert audience, see Sady Doyle in Elle.

If you can’t take off from work, paid or otherwise, I do know where you can buy a very cute and reasonably priced red shirt, but as this violates the spirit of rule 2, I will just advise wearing the red you’ve already got.

Are you striking? Not striking? Comments to this post are open, and I welcome pitches, as usual: bovy@forward.com

*Typo fixed!

Phoebe Maltz Bovy edits the Sisterhood, and can be reached at bovy@forward.com. Her book, The Perils of “Privilege”, will be published by St. Martin’s Press in March 2017.

Phoebe Maltz Bovy is a former editor of the Sisterhood blog at the Forward. Her writing has appeared in several publications, including The New Republic and The Atlantic. Her book, “The Perils of ‘Privilege,’” was published by St. Martin’s Press in March 2017. She has a PhD in French and French Studies from New York University, and has read a lot of 19th century French Jewish newspapers for a 21st century American.

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