Many women will not be working, studying, or shopping today as part of the Day without a Woman activities, but as for me I will be working, writing, and marching for women. I freely admit that I am a woman of privilege. I’m white, well educated, and work a professional job and because of all those things, I could easily take a day off with pay to show unlike the millions of women who do not have access to paid leave.
The Washington Post published an article called the Expensive Problem of the Day without a Woman that cited Bureau of Labor Statistics showing that among women of privilege (i.e. the top 10 percent of earners) 90 percent could take a day off and still get paid while among the bottom 10 percent of earners, only 28 percent could take day off without pay. Additionally, as was shown in the case of the day without immigrants when workers were fired for taking the day off, taking a day off not only means a loss of pay for one day, it could also mean the loss of livelihood.
How can I as a woman who has so much ask my sisters to take a day off and jeopardize their jobs? The simple answer is that I can’t. Although many in the women’s movement justify taking the day off as taking it off for women making less, I can’t do that as I believe that taking the day off while other women can’t afford to is just flaunting my privilege.
So what will I be doing instead of taking the day off with pay? I will be wearing red, marching (after work hours) to support International Women’s Day, I will be seeking out small women owned businesses to patronize, I will write letters begging lawmakers not to defund Planned Parenthood, and I will donate money to organization’s that support victims of domestic violence. And on Thursday, I’ll participate in CSU’s Women of Power event.
Cairn by Cairn 