What the economy would look like without women

From: Jill M.

Sent: March 26, 2017

To: undisclosed recipients

Subject: Fw: What the economy would look like without women

I am strong every day, I love my children everyday, I relive the pain of childbirth every day and endure the pain of child rearing and child losing every day. I breathe every day and I love every day. My nerves carry messages every second of every minute of every day. From my first day to my last day I am the sum of so many who have gone before and a part of me will live in every thing yet to come. I am made of the stars, controlled by electricity, powered by plants. I have the power to create life and the responsibility to guide it. I am not just a woman, I am a human. I am not International I am multi-dimensional and I am definitely, most certainly not just for a day. With that said the article I'm sharing does bring to light the importance of women and the economy.

~Jill

Wednesday’s “Day Without A Woman” strike could have cost the United States nearly $21 billion in gross domestic product and thrown workplaces across the country into chaos — if all paid working women had taken the day off.
But many didn’t. It was a lofty goal put forth by a broad coalition of women’s right groups, including the organizers behind the post-inauguration Women’s March, to coincide with International Women’s Day. Like the “Day Without Immigrants,” the “Day Without A Woman” strike was meant to show the country what daily life feels like without women — and to hit employers and businesses in the pocket.

Women in more than 50 countries around the world hosted rallies or marches to raise awareness of women’s rights and contributions. In the U.S., Women’s March organizers also asked women to take the day off of work — paid or unpaid; not spend money except at women-owned businesses; and wear red in solidarity, a color that has long been associated with the labor movement.

Women make up 47 percent of the workforce, according to economist Kate Bahn of the left-leaning Center for American Progress. But it’s unclear how many of those women chose — or were able — to strike. “Even as the economy has improved, there’s still a lot of economic insecurity,” said Elise Gould, an economist with the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. That point was highlighted by some critics of the march, engaged in an emerging debate over whether women were undervalued, or whether the strike was elitist; “the chasm between the haves and the have-nots is creating tension within the feminist movement,” the Washington Post writes.

“I think a lot of people who care about work they do, they don’t want to make it inconvenient for other people,” Bahn said. “But that’s the point. It’s supposed to be inconvenient.”

Some areas across the country have already been inconvenienced. Early Tuesday evening, schools in Maryland’s Prince George’s County announced they would close, leaving parents scrambling to find and pay for child care arrangements for their kids and, in some cases, forcing them to miss a day of pay to stay home. On Monday, Alexandria, Virginia’s school district announced that due to more than 300 staff members requesting the day off, schools would be closed on Wednesday.

The absence of seven clerks and one deputy court administrator in Providence, Rhode Island, brought the municipal court to a standstill, reported the New York Times. And protestors in New York briefly brought traffic in front of Trump International Hotel to a stop. Thirteen people, including Women’s March organizers, were arrested.

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