Women make push for equality on global scale
Protesters speak up against pay gap on international day
MADRID — Women across Europe and Asia shouted their demands for equality, respect and empowerment 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 France, President Em
U.N. Secretary- General manuel Macron vowed to Antonio Guterres said the name and shame compaworld is at “a pivotal monies that don’t respect the ment for women’s rights” law on gender equality. and urged men and boys to Across Asia, women join in making gender came out to mark the day. equality “a reality for all.” In China, students at Ts
In Lynwood, Calif., inghua University used the McDonald’s temporarily day to make light of a flipped its Golden Arches to proposed constitutional look like a “W” — a move it amendment to scrap term said it made to recognize limits for the country’s presInternational Women’s Day. ident. One banner joked
The upside-down logo that a boyfriend’s term also appeared Thursday on should also have no limits, the fast-food giant’s website while another said, “Acounand social media accounts. try cannot exist without a
Events were also held in constitution, as we cannot other U.S. cities. exist without you!”
In some countries, proBut photos of the stutests were more muted. dents’ banners, like other against Philippine Presi
International Women’s content about the proposed dent Rodrigo Duterte, callDay is a public holiday in amendment, were quickly ing him among the worst Russia, but opposition prescensored on social media. violators of women’s rights idential candidate Ksenia At rallies in the Pakistan in Asia. Sobchak was one of the few capital Islamabad, its largest Human rights groups demonstrators in Moscow. city Karachi and the culturhave condemned Duterte’s
In a protest reminiscent al capital of Lahore, women sexist remarks, including of the #MeToo movement, denounced violence against one in which he asked which aims to hold those them in Pakistan, where troops to shoot female cominvolved in sexual misconnearly 1,000 women are munist rebels in the geniduct, and those who cover it killed by close relatives each tals. up, accountable, Sobchak year in so-called honor In Afghanistan, hunstaged a solo picket outside killings. Pakistani women dreds of women, who the lower house of the have largely been deprived would have been afraid to Russian parliament to deof their rights since the leave their homes during mand the resignation of a country gained independTaliban rule, gathered in the prominent l awmaker ence in 1947. capital to commemorate the whom severalday.femalejour-Hundredsofactivistsin nalists accuse of sexual harpink and purple shirts proHundreds of South Koreassment. tested in downtown Manila ans, many wearing black Women shout slogans during a protest Thursday in Madrid on International Women's Day. In Barcelona, protesters disrupted traffic. Protests and strikes were held in several cities. and holding black #MeToo signs, rallied in central Seoul. South Korea’s #MeToo movement has gained significant traction since January, when a female prosecutor began speaking openly about workplace mistreatment and sexual misconduct.
In India, hundreds of women, including students, teachers and sex workers, marched through the capital to bring attention to domestic violence, sexual attacks and discrimination in jobs and wages.
“Unite against violence against women,” one placard urged. “Man enough to say no to domestic abuse,” said another. “My body, My choice.”
India had its first female leader in 1966 when Indira Gandhi became prime minister, but Indian women are often relegated to secondclass citizenship.
In Rome, Catholic women challenged Pope Francis to give women a greater voice.
Asia Argento, an Italian actress who helped launch the #MeToo movement, said she is launching a new movement, #WeToo, which aims to unite women against the power imbalance in favor of men.