Women’s rights: unions and associations call for strike on March 8

“Strike at work, in housework and in consumption”: as International Women’s Rights Day approaches on March 8, feminist associations and unions call for a general mobilization like the strikes observed in Spain and Iceland in recent years.

The idea is “for women to stop all paid activities (and men too), all domestic tasks (childcare, nursing, cleaning, cooking, etc.) and consumption to paralyze society and show that women “far from being an adjustment variable, they are an essential cog in society,” writes the #GrèveFéministe collective in a press release.

Multiple demands

This group, which brings together associations and unions (Family Planning, Dare Feminism, CGT, Unef, etc.), denounces in particular the sexism that “is increasingly rooted in public opinion”, an “increase in declared sexual violence “, Emmanuel Macron’s support for Gérard Depardieu prosecuted for rape or the head of state’s recent call for “demographic rearmament”.

It calls for the “revaluation of feminized professions (education, care, cleaning, etc.)”, equal pay, “the establishment of non-sexist education” and education in emotional and sexual life or even an “equitable distribution of housework.” .

On March 8, 2018, a feminist strike in Spain led to a two-hour work stoppage observed, according to the two main Spanish unions, by 5.9 million workers in the country.

This strike was inspired by a similar movement in 1975 in Iceland, when 90% of Icelandic women participated in a day of work stoppage that paved the way for important advances in equality between women and men in the country.

Stop working like in Iceland

In October 2023, thousands of women, including Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir, again stopped working to demand equal pay and protest violence against women.

Following the #FeministStrike on Monday, five union organizations (CFDT, CGT, UNSA, FSU and Solidaires) also called for mobilization on March 8, “including through strikes”, to obtain “action”.

“Despite the effects of government announcements to make the cause of women the great cause of the five-year period, inequalities persist in the workplace, at home and in society,” they lament in a joint statement. “Let’s not let outdated, sexist, masculinist speeches pass by. We no longer want promises, we want actions.”