First, let me start by saying that I am absolutely a feminist and I truly believe that this idea was great in theory. I love that women across the country felt empowered to take a stand against the inequalities we face on a day to day basis. I really hope this strike made people think about the role of women and that we deserve the same as men and vice verse.
If you had the opportunity to participate, I hope you didn't just use the day to not go to work. I hope you called your representatives, spread the word, did some research, or truly participated in the protest. If you were not able to take off from work, I hope you also participated by doing the above. Protesting is not just showing up or not showing up. You have to be an active participant of change.
What made me upset about this strike is that jobs who have a heavy effect on others were stopped. I understand that the point was to show the impact that women have everywhere, like I said, it s a great idea in theory. However, the problem I have with this protest is schools closed for this day. Not only is this taking away a day of education for some children, but it puts some parents in a bad situation.
Imagine, a single mother or father who cannot afford to take off work for the day to care for their child. What are they supposed to do? Go to work and leave their child home alone? Or call out and potentially lose their job or not have enough money for food?
Imagine parents who are barely making enough for a place to live. They are on welfare and cannot afford to feed their children the nutrients they need. The children have access to free and reduced lunch and breakfast at school. After a whole weekend of scarce meals, they were excited to go back to school and not feel hungry. However, with this protest, they were unable to eat for most of the day because their parents could not provide the extra food they needed.
I understand that this protest was about making change, but as educators, your students always come first. Superintendents should understand this, principals should understand this, and teachers should understand this. There were so many other ways to participate in "A Day without Women" and as educators, you should have seen this as an opportunity to teach your students about equality or about great women figures in your subject.
