Day Without a Woman

Day Without a Woman
House Democratic representatives heading down the United States Capitol stairs to meet demonstrators in Washington, D.C.
Date	March 8, 2017 (2017-03-08)

A Day Without a Woman was a general strike held on March 8, 2017, on International Women's Day. The strike, which was organized by two different groups—the 2017 Women's March and a separate International Women's Strike movement—asked that women not work that day to protest the policies of the administration of Donald Trump. Planning began before Trump's November 2016 election. The movement was adopted and promoted by the Women's March, and recommended actions inspired by the "Bodega Strike" and the Day Without Immigrants.

Organizers in the U.S. encouraged women to refrain from working, spending money (or, alternatively, electing to shop only at "small, women- and minority-owned businesses"), and to wear red as a sign of solidarity.

The strike was organized by international coalitions of activists with a range of articulated demands.

The American strike platform demanded "open borders," freedom from "immigration raids," and "the decolonization of Palestine" as ancillary goals to "emancipation of women."

The group of 8 well-known activists who issued the first call for a March 8, 2017 strike in the United States described it as "anti-capitalist," "anti-racist, anti-imperialist, anti-heterosexist," "anti-neoliberal," and opposed to "the violence of the market, of debt, of capitalist property relations, and of the state; the violence of discriminatory policies against lesbian, trans and queer women; the violence of state criminalization of migratory movements."

The strike was worldwide, planning began in Poland in October 2016, before the election of Trump.

On February 6, eight political activists including Linda Martín Alcoff, Cinzia Arruzza, Tithi Bhattacharya, Nancy Fraser, Barbara Ransby, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, and Angela Davis called for a March 8 strike in the United States. Later that morning, organizers of the 2017 Women's March against the Trump administration endorsed the idea of a general strike without specifying a date. On February 14 organizers of the January Women's March endorsed the March 8 strike, raising questions about what group was in charge and what the goals and scope of the protest would be. Other groups had called for general strikes as well.