The International Women's Strike, also known as Paro Internacional de Mujeres, is a global movement coordinated across over 50 countries and coinciding with International Women's Day, on 8 March 2017 and 2018. The United Nations announced the theme of "Women in the Changing World of Work: Planet 50-50 by 2030", calling for gender equality around the globe. In the United States, the strike was branded as "Day Without a Woman".
Background
On 3 October 2016 women in Poland organized a nationwide strike following a Polish parliamentary decision to consider a ban on abortion that would criminalize all terminations. The day became known as Black Monday. 19 October 2016 saw the #NiUnaMenos protest against femicide in Argentina, a large-scale response to the murder of 16-year-old Lucía Pérez. Similar demonstrations took place in other Latin American countries including Mexico, El Salvador, Chile, and others. A week later, on 25 October 2017, Brazil held its own #NiUnaMenos strike. Due to countries like Poland and Argentina coming together, the International Women's Strike was formed in 2017. It was coordinated by Polish women and allowed for groups to state their demands. During regular Skype meetings, lasting as long as 4 hours, women from more than 30 countries shared information on what they were doing for the strike. This led to large strikes in some countries, with rallies and downing tools, while others were smaller.
Participating countries
Over 50 countries participated in the International Women's Strike.
Ireland
In Ireland, the platform titled "Strike 4 Repeal" demanded: " that the Irish government call a referendum to repeal the 8th amendment by the 8th of March. If not, we will strike." The strike action was inspired by the Black Protest in Poland months earlier.
United States
In the United States, A Day Without a Woman was a general strike held on 8 March 2017 and organized by two different groups—the 2017 Women's March and a separate International Women's Strike movement. The two groups asked that women not work that day to protest the policies of the administration of Donald Trump, encouraging women to refrain from working, spending money, and to wear red as a sign of solidarity.
Spain
On 8 March 2018, the Spanish feminist movement called for a 24-hour strike. The slogan of the day was "If we stop, the world stops." Instead of the strike being a simple labor strike, women were encourage to strike in other aspects of their lives. Women "were summoned to stop working, to stop attending classes, to cease to undertake care work and to avoid consuming." Almost 6 million workers participated in the strike and joined marches in cities across the country. After the International Women's Strike was organized in 2017 and carried out, the next day, several feminist organizations started working together to make the 24 hour strike on 8 March 2018 have a bigger impact. The 8 March Commission was the commission that organized the 8 March demonstration in Madrid in previous years. This commission began meeting on the 8th of every month to organize a general strike in Spain which needed cooperation from many feminist groups in the country. This led to the creation of a national 8 March commission. Local 8 March committees were created everywhere in the country as well, including cities and towns. They have monthly meetings where anyone can attend. Some meetings in Madrid have drawn as many as 200 women. In 2018, the strike call that the national commission wanted was going to tackle "gender violence, bodies and the right to choose, borders and the economy." The commission was fairly diverse, with women having been in the precious cycle of protests in the 70s. Hundreds of organizations as well as local political groups supported the strike. Due to the success of the strike call, the issues that were raised gained major importance with media outlets and the press.'
