TAKING A STAND
Women stage rallies in city, around world to promote equality
At 3:08 p.m. Wednesday, about 100 women (and a few men) began streaming toward “The Fence” in the middle of Carnegie Mellon’s campus in a silent walkout to “A Day Without a Woman,” organized to coincide with International Women’s Day.
They joined women around the country from Santa Cruz, Calif., to Chicago to Philadelphia, in rallies aimed at drawing attention to women’s roles in the labor force and to criticize government actions they view as anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim and anti-woman. The day was planned by Women’s March on Washington organizers, who made their first large-scale attempt to build on the momentum of their January march, calling on women across the country to skip work and take to the streets to resist the policies of the new presidential administration.
“At this point in history, things need to change,” said Maya Zane Kaisth, a senior from New Jersey, wearing a bright red coat to show solidarity with other women wearing red. “Our mothers and grandmothers fought for things that have been given to us, but now we need to take it on.”
Her friend, senior Anna Rosati, of Upper St. Clair, listed some of the individual concerns that drew her out to protest, including job opportunities, pay, power dynamics and “ways of integrating with the world.”
The friends had left studio time for their art class, with the full support of their professor.
CMU staff members also joined the walkout. “I’m passionate about women’s rights and equality and this is an easy way to come together and say we all support this,” said Colleen Libertz, an academic adviser at CMU.
Many members of the protest boarded Port Authority Transit buses immediately afterward to join the larger rally and march Downtown in the evening.
Assorted businesses in the region also observed the day, including several women-owned businesses in Lawrenceville that closed their doors entirely.
At the Allegheny Wine Mixer, which normally would have been preparing to open at 5 p.m. on a Wednesday, the windows were covered with signs that read “Closed #DayWithoutAWoman” and “International Women’s Strike: Solidarity Is Our Weapon.” Several other women-owned businesses along Butler Street that chose to stay open hung signs that said Women At Work.
At Carnegie Coffee Company in Carnegie, owner Ashley Comer said that she wanted to observe the day but that she couldn’t afford to close entirely. Instead, she wore red pants and a Planned Parenthood T-shirt to work and chose to donate all tips from the latter half of the day, when she was working in the shop by herself, to Planned Parenthood.
That shift was busier than usual, she said, and tips were more generous. “I wanted to show, ‘I’m a woman, hear me roar,’ ” she said, “while my kids are at home being fed dinner by my husband.”
Around the country the crowds were smaller than those held the day after President Donald Trump’s inauguration, but in some areas the “women’s strike” shut down schools.
In the Washington, D.C., region, the large number of teacher time-off requests prompted public school districts in Alexandria, Va., and Prince George’s County, Md., to close, along with at least nine charter schools in the District.
In New York, 13 women, including top organizers of the January Women’s March, were arrested as they blocked traffic and made a “human wall” around Trump International Hotel. A crowd of about 1,000 people had gathered on New York’s Fifth Avenue in the shadow of Trump Tower. Women wore red and waved signs reading “Nevertheless she persisted,” “Misogyny out of the White House now” and “Resist like a girl.”
Also, a statue of a fearlesslooking girl was placed in front of Wall Street’s famous charging bull sculpture. The girl appeared to be staring down the animal.
Women joked that the first participant in Wednesday’s strike was none other than the city’s most illustrious female resident, Lady Liberty. For several hours Tuesday night, the Statue of Liberty went dark. The National Park Service, which operates the monument, blamed a “technical glitch.”
Elsewhere, the demonstrations were more subdued.
In the nation’s capital, protesters swarmed public spaces in front of the White House, Capitol and Labor Department.
“Day Without a Woman” coincided with International Women’s Day and sparked conversations about women in the workforce and disparate wages between men and women. It also was inspired in part by the Day Without an Immigrant protest held last month.
The actions in some areas Wednesday were decidedly more strident than the January protests, as demonstrators were countering policies that have since been implemented or proposed by the Trump administration.
Women who couldn’t join the strike were urged to participate by wearing red — a color that symbolizes “revolutionary love and sacrifice,” organizers said — and spend money at small and women-owned businesses.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., emerged from the Capitol on Wednesday clad in red and waving a sign, showing support for the strike and urging more women to run for office.
“People would say to me, ‘If you ruled the world, what one thing would you do to make the future better?’ That’s an easy answer: the education of girls,” Ms. Pelosi said.
Mr. Trump didn’t respond to the protests but tweeted to coincide with International Women’s Day, saying, “I have tremendous respect for women and the many roles they serve that are vital to the fabric of our society and our economy.”
In an International Women’s Day message, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said leadership positions are predominantly held by men, and “outdated attitudes and entrenched male chauvinism” are widening the economic gender gap. Closing that gap would add $12 trillion to global GDP by 2025, he said.
Mr. Gueterres also lamented that “around the world, tradition, cultural values and religion are being misused to curtail women’s rights, to entrench sexism and defend misogynistic practices.”
In Warsaw, thousands of women showed Poland’s conservative government red cards and made noise with kitchenware to demand full birth control rights, respect and higher pay.
Thousands marched in Istanbul, despite restrictions on demonstrations imposed since last year’s failed coup. Police did not interfere.
Women also held rallies in Tokyo, Rome and Madrid.