Women certainly should be celebrated for their many contributions, and “Day Without a Woman” did a little of that and a lot of advocacy for labor policies yesterday. According to the organizer’s website, the strike was intended to “call out decision-makers” on topics like the minimum wage, the gender pay gap, women’s healthcare, vacation time, and child care.
An impartial observer would likely believe that women’s prospects must be quite depressing, given the missed work, public school closures, and street protests that occurred in some U.S. cities. Luckily, American women’s social welfare and economic prospects are better than many strikers realize.
Take female leadership, for example: it would probably surprise Day Without a Woman strikers that 42% of legislators, senior officials, and managers in America are female. This figure is higher than comparable places like Canada, Western Europe, and Eastern Europe. According to World Bank data, the U.S. is at the top of the pack and has been for at least the last decade.
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