International Women's Day 2017: protests, activism and a strike – as it happened

For International Women’s Day, the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think tank, is sharing some facts about the persistent wage gap in the United States.

A lot of EPI’s output has focused on which factors do not explain the wage gap. It turns out a that lot factors people assume drive the wage gap actually play a small role. For instance, women’s choices of careers alone can’t explain their pay disparity. And women can’t simply educate themselves out of the pay gap. Women who hold advanced degrees still earn less, on average, than men with only a bachelor’s degree.

Then, there’s the one-two punch of gender and racial bias. In the US, the wage gap is much bigger if you’re a woman of color.

In fact, while the overall wage gap has narrowed over the past four decades, the disparity between white women’s wages and black women’s is one of the fastest-growing gaps in the economy. That gap has increased the most for college-educated black women who are just entering the market.

Latina women are even further behind when their wages are compared alongside white workers’. For every dollar a white man is paid, white women are paid 81 cents, black women 65 cents, and Hispanic women 58 cents.

Women have made forward progress in gaining managerial roles, but those gains have almost all gone to white women. Meanwhile, the minimum wage workers who have seen their wages freeze are more likely to be women of color. Women are nearly two-thirds of the minimum wage workforce, and the majority of women earning minimum wage or less are women of color.

Hundreds of women farmers across Brazil occupied government offices in protest of new policies they say disproportionately harm poor, rural women.

In one instance of protest, women from Brazil’s Landless Workers Movement staged an occupation of an abandoned farm belonging to a prominent businessman jailed on charges of corruption.

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The land, said Ani Hao, a national organizer, belongs to Eike Batista, an oil and gas magnate who was arrested in the course of a multimillion dollar money laundering investigation. One hundred families will camp and farm on its 3,000 hectares, said Hao.

Their occupation came as hundreds protesters marched across Brazilian cities or took over public offices. The demonstrators said pension reforms and other changes to social security will make it harder for family farmers to stay on the land. from Reuters:

Brazilian officials say the changes, including raising the minimum retirement age for rural workers to 65 years and higher pension contributions, are crucial for South America’s largest country to escape a fiscal crisis and recession.

“Rural workers live on the margins,” said Sejane Alexandre, a protester in Tocantins State in central Brazil’s agricultural belt.

“The rural worker does not have the same longevity and access to healthcare (as urban employees),” she said, according to local media.

In Recife, on Brazil’s northeastern coast, around 1,000 female land rights activists occupied the government’s social security office, the Pastoral Land Commission campaign group said in a statement.

About seventy percent of the food consumed by Brazilians is produced by family farmers, according to the United Nations, but small producers often complain about unequal land distribution and poor government services in rural areas.

First Lady Melania Trump celebrated International Women’s Day with salsify and spinach gnocchi at a private luncheon at the White House.

Guests included Trump aide Kellyanne Conway, Ivanka Trump, Karen Pence, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, Sen. Susan Collins, Small Business Administration chair-slash-former WWE executive Linda McMahon, and a 2015 Viognier from Sonoma County.

Mona Chalabi writes for the Guardian that not all women can strike today – some, because they lack the power, and some, because the work can’t happen without them:

International Women’s Day has always been tied to labor rights (first by the Socialist Party of America in 1908, and later by female textile workers in Russia in 1917). But that hasn’t meant that every woman in the workforce has been able to take part. Then and now, women have worked in jobs where striking just isn’t an option.

There are various reasons for that. In the US, women are more likely than men to work in part-time employment where workers are often considered more “disposable”. They are also less likely than men to receive a pension, more likely than men to live in poverty and more likely to be paid hourly rates that are belowminimum wage. That makes striking risky, and this is before you even get to the astounding amount of unpaid work women do, including caregiver roles where taking a day off can be a matter of life and death.

There are other occupations where women make up the majority. Pre-schoolers in America will have a tough time learning today if their teachers, 98% of whom are female, do decide to go on strike. More important though is healthcare – what would hospitals around the country look like if the 91% of nurses who are female simply didn’t show up?

Read on for a list of professions in which women dominate and for a look at the gender balance at the Guardian.

Women across Poland held demonstrations and marches on Wednesday to demand equal rights and protest violence. In Warsaw, hundred gathered before the office of Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the head of Poland’s conservative party and a supporter of the government’s recent efforts to ban abortion.

A group of US Democratic congresswomen spoke before a crowd of dozens dressed in red on the steps of the US Capitol. The rally was part of a symbolic walkout some Democrats in the House staged for #DayWithoutAWoman – a protest the speakers linked directly to Trump and the GOP.

“We are resisting Trump and congressional Republicans and letting them know we will not go back,” said Rep. Barbara Lee of California. “We walked out today for A Day Without a Woman to send a clear message: that we stand with our sisters across the country who have walked out in defense of equal rights for women…We are raising our voices for the millions of women who can’t.”

Amid signs reading “Women’s Rights are Human Rights,” Lee hailed women of color who “work twice as hard for half the pay”. Her colleagues denounced the high rates of violence facing trans women, and the renewed threat of deportation facing many immigrants.

Rep. Brenda Lawrence of Michigan read out a list of statistics that would reflect a day without women. “A day without a woman is a day of great loss for America and for the world,” she said. “A day without a woman is a day without the primary or sole earner for 40% of households” with young children. “A day without a woman is a day without 47% of the nation’s workforce. A day without a woman is a day without 80% of the health care workforce in America” and “close to 80% of the elementary and middle school educators in this country.”

“You would think our numbers would be enough to convince people of the needs for equality for women in America,” she concluded. “But we still have a long way to go.”

The White House office of the Press Secretary released the following statement to mark International Women’s Day.

International Women’s Day gives us the opportunity to celebrate and reflect upon the meaningful progress women have made throughout society, while also acknowledging that there is still much work that remains to be done to ensure the complete and consequential participation of women in all spheres of economic, political, and public life. Throughout our history, women have made enormous contributions in the service of our country, and we know that as a Nation, America will only become stronger, more prosperous, and better able to meet our shared goals, as women achieve greater access to a level playing field.

The United States, as a beacon of hope and a leader in promoting women’s rights, is deeply committed to empowering women both at home and abroad. Our policies will work to advance the economic empowerment of women by promoting entrepreneurship and equal access to education, employment opportunities, and training adapted to a new economic landscape.

Together, America looks forward to a bright future with women in higher-wage jobs throughout high-growth sectors. America remains committed to empowering women around the world to realize their full potential within the global marketplace. And with our international partners, America will build upon the legacy of previous generations of women who have bravely broken through both economic and political barriers.

It was with these goals in mind that, as one of its first initiatives, this Administration ramped up efforts to promote women in business by launching the United States-Canada Council for Advancement of Women Entrepreneurs and Business Leaders. The United States will continue to work with Canada and other partners around the globe to ensure that all women have the opportunity to succeed.

Today, the United States renews its commitment to fostering economic growth and job creation by harnessing the full potential of women in our economy. This Administration will work diligently to encourage women to enter and succeed in the workforce while addressing the many barriers women still face in achieving economic success, including those that impede women’s access to capital, markets, and networking opportunities.

Just as the statement went live, dozens of House Democrats stood on the steps of the US Capitol to argue the threat the Trump administration posed to women’s reproductive rights, women of color, Muslim women, trans women, minimum wage-earners, and women immigrants.

Here’s an aerial shot of the protest in New York:

Hundreds have started to gather at the southeast corner of Central Park in New York City as part of the US strike for women’s rights.

The rally, for women’s economic equality and freedom from violence will culminate in a march, all taking place in the immediate vicinity of Trump Tower.

Organizers of International Women’s Day called for a general strike of US women to represent “the women who have been left behind”, such as women of color, Muslim women, trans women, and working-class women.

“Especially surrounding Hillary Clinton’s candidacy, there’s been this idea that feminism is somehow about women becoming powerful and successful CEOs,” aid Tithi Bhattacharya, an associate professor at Purdue University and one of the people who first called for the strike in a February op-ed for the Guardian. “The goal of 8 March is to make feminism a threat to the system and to talk about the feminism about the 99% rather than the 1%.”

Watch a livestream of US House Democrats staging a walkout to mark International Women’s Day.