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5 Things You Need To Know About International Women’s Day

Elizabeth Laura Nelson
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Without us, the world stops.

On International Women’s Day this year, some women celebrated by dropping off the grid – while wearing red.

That’s because the organizers of last January’s hugely successful Women’s March called for women to take the day off from paid and unpaid work, avoid spending money, and wear red to show solidarity with other women.

The protest, dubbed ‘A Day Without A Woman,’ was designed to highlight the vital role women play in the day-to-day functioning of the world, while also calling attention to the fact that women regularly experience gender discrimination in many forms, including being paid less than men for doing the same job, and being subject to sexual harassment on a daily basis.

Of course, many women can’t afford to take a day off work, either paid or unpaid. We have babies to nurse, bills to pay, groceries to buy, patients to care for, customers to serve, and bosses to answer to. Critics of ‘A Day Without A Woman’ have accused the movement of being short-sighted, poorly thought out, and actually harmful to women.

But whether or not you support this particular action, it’s undeniable that something needs to be done about gender inequality – particularly considering the United States recently elected a president who thinks it’s okay to grab women’s genitals, as long as you’re famous enough to get away with it.

On that note, here are five things to know about International Women’s Day this year:

1. The Statue of Liberty mysteriously (and briefly) went dark the night before the ‘A Day Without A Woman’ protest was set to begin…

2. Many people questioned whether participating in the protest was a signifier of privilege, and unfairly burdened those who couldn’t afford to participate.

3. The Daily Show launched an epic Twitter war against Donald Trump, calling out some of the worst things he’s said about women over the years.

4. Full Frontal‘s Samantha Bee pointed out that in the Trump White House, a day without a woman would be business as usual.

5. As is the case every other day, white women earned an average of 80 percent of what a man earned at the same job, while women of color earned even less than that. Every hour, an average of 78 American women were raped, although only 16 percent of them will report it to the police. And countless times per minute, women were subject to shit like this –

Happy International Women’s Day, everyone.

Image via Shutterstock, media via Twitter.

Comment: Did you do anything to celebrate International Women’s Day this year?