Women strike, protest as world marks Women’s Day
24- hour strike was launched in Manila, Seoul, New Delhi
French President Emmanuel Macron vowed to name and shame companies that don’t respect the law on gender equality.
In China, students at Tsinghua University proposed constitutional amendment to scrap term limits for the country’s President.
Madrid: Women across Europe and Asia shouted their demands for equality, respect and empowerment on Thursday to mark International Women’s Day, with protesters in Spain launching a 24- hour strike and crowds of demonstrators filling the streets of Manila, Seoul and New Delhi.
Spanish women were staging dozens of protests across the country against the wage gap and gender violence.
In Barcelona, protesters disrupting traffic into the city center were pushed back by riot police. In Madrid, hundreds of women gathered in its central square to demand change.
Teresa Sonsur, a 38- yearold social services agency worker, said she wanted to end workplace discrimination. “What we see in our job in social services is that the women are doing all the hard work, dealing with the customers, but in the positions of management it is always men,” she said.
In some countries, protests were more muted. International Women’s Day is a public holiday in Russia, but opposition presidential candidate Ksenia Sobchak was one of the few demonstrators in Moscow.
In a protest reminiscent of the # MeToo movement, which aims to hold those involved in sexual misconduct, and those who cover it up, accountable, Sobchak staged a solo picket outside the lower house of the Russian Parliament to demand the resignation of a prominent lawmaker whom several female journalists accuse of sexual harassment.
On a lighter note, a leading French newspaper found a witty way of making its point about discrimination and the gender pay gap by upping its price for men.
The left- leaning daily Liberation said that for one day only, men would pay 50 euro cents more than women, in a reflection of the 25 per cent less that women in France are paid, on average.
French President Emmanuel Macron vowed to name and shame companies that don’t respect the law on gender equality.
Across Asia, women came out to mark the day. In China, students at Tsinghua University used the day to make light of a proposed constitutional amendment to scrap term limits for the country’s President.
At rallies in the Pakistan capital Islamabad, women denounced violence against them in Pakistan, where nearly 1,000 women are killed by close relatives each year in so- called honor killings. Pakistani women have largely been deprived of their rights since the country gained independence in 1947.