Columbus rally dramatizes impact of women on world
First, Alicia Hayles’ mother-in-law taught her to cook. Then she taught Alicia how to run a business. “In this family the women are taking the reins,” said Hayles, who now runs Just Jerks, a Cincinnati-based food truck. On Wednesday, her van was among a dozen womenowned food trucks at an International Women’s Day rally that drew several hundred people to Goodale Park in the Short North. But this year, March 8 marked more than an annual celebration of women’s accomplishments.
In Columbus and cities nationwide, grassroots activists dedicated the day to a women’s general strike to demonstrate the economic impact that women have in America. They urged women to attend rallies like
the one in Goodale, wear red in solidarity and call attention to economic injustices by taking the day off from work.
Organizers also encouraged women to flex their purchasing power by only taking their business to small, womenand minority-owned businesses — like Hayles’ food truck.
“It's a struggle,” she said of being a black, female entrepreneur. “I juggle so many hats. Sometime you wonder if it’s worth it.”
“A Day Without A Woman" demonstrations were put on by the same group behind the Women's March on Washington, held the day after the inauguration in January.
“We cannot thrive unless we all thrive as a country,” said Rhiannon Childs, codirector of the organization’s Ohio chapter.
Many women face issues involving religious freedom, immigration, gun violence and economic disparity on a daily basis, and not just “traditional women’s issues” like reproductive care and unequal pay, Childs said. At Wednesday’s rally, a small sea of handmade signs and posters put that diversity of interests on display.
“We’re using this as a galvanizing moment,” said Columbus Councilwoman Elizabeth Brown. “People say, ‘Pick an issue.’ As women, we’re half the population; we’re facing a lot.”
Not everyone approved of Wednesday’s general strike. Thousands of women criticized the timing of the event on social media, saying they couldn't afford to and/or would be unable to take time off in the middle of a work week to participate in the general strike. Other women felt the event had too much of a partisan-politics feel rather than concentrating on issues like paid family leave and child care.
Wednesday’s rally in Columbus also drew countless children and men there to support daughters, wives, mothers and friends.
Omar El Hag Musa said he came to support his grandmother, who was unable to make her annual trip from Sudan because of uncertainty created by the possible U.S. travel ban.
“You don’t have to be a woman to care about women’s issues,” he said. “My whole life, my mom was the breadmaker. If she’s getting 70 cents on the dollar, that affects the whole
household.”
Earlier Wednesday, a classmate told 7-year-old Shiloh Whitman that she couldn’t play football. A few hours later, she proudly carried around a handmade sign reading, “Girls are as strong as boys.”
“It’s important to teach her young that women deserve just as much as men do,” said Shiloh’s mom, Mackenzie Whitman of Westerville. “I want her growing up knowing it.”
For some in the crowd, the rally itself was a political message.
Laura Cotton, who works at Ohio State University’s College of Engineering, started participating in local activism after attending the Washington march.
“I was never political, but I’m so upset that it’s energized me,” she said.