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A day without women, is it a possible initiative in Mexico?

The feminist proposal of "A day without women" has opened the debate. What would happen on a day without women in Mexico, and raised the question if it is possible for all women to join

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Feminists and collective groups have promoted the initiative "A day without women" for next March 9, following multiple complaints of femicides, disappearances, and violence against women in all its variants.

The first mobilization of this kind occurred in Iceland in 1975, where 90% of the island's female population stopped working and took to the streets to demonstrate for equality. That day, workers in the banks, factories, shops, schools, and nurseries were away.

For Elvia González, coordinator for the Gender Program at the Universidad Iberoamericana, the existence of a national strike is a way of making us aware that we make up for being a little more of the total population and cannot continue receiving this treatment. "I think it is important to see in all fields that women have an impact, that we have an impact, work at home that is unpaid work that contributes to GDP, the economy in the streets, in stores, in companies."

In this regard, Alejandra Collado, a teacher in women's studies, comments that this type of initiative is a form of visibility, as are all marches.

"We don't need to be geniuses to believe that with this demonstration, we are going to solve something, but this mobilization is a strategy of exposing the situation that women are experiencing," she says.

The economic impact of women

The National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi) reported that Mexico has 22 million 32 thousand 255 employed women who develop some economic activity or service. If taken into account that the average salary of workers registered with IMSS reaches 396.2 pesos per day, the strike of employed women would cost 8,729 million pesos, in personal or family income.

It is still not understood that the violence is "against us, against our rights, our existence in the private and public space. This is an exercise that if they don't see us, we don't exist; therefore, we do not exist in work or to consume," says Graciela Rock, an expert in public policy and feminism.

For Collado, A day without women is the possibility of creating a hypothetical scenario like the movie A day without Mexicans. The goal is to recognize women's work. "We already know that man are head of families, employers. What we are talking about is recognizing that there is another part, there are women who are being exploited, that is what we want to show," she says.

Is a day without women possible in Mexico?

The A Day Without Women initiative arises as a result of the Ingrid and Fatima femicide's two tragic and media events that occupied the February 2020 headlines. Two cases that add to the UN statistics, which stipulated that in Mexico, ten women are murdered daily. María Teresa Priego, writer, and columnist for La Silla Rota, poses the question: Is this strike functional in Mexico? "Sounds like a first world proposal. Are we prepared in our country? I ask myself," she says.

"A day without women" implies the immobilization of 40% of the Mexican workforce and an average value of 25,744 million pesos. If unpaid work is added, such as that performed by women at home without receiving a salary, the figure exceeds 37,000 million pesos, according to journalistic calculations.

Elvia González points out that the lack of support for this strike by employers shows a lack of awareness of managers in the murder of 10 women daily for gender reasons. "Beyond thinking whether or not it affects them to go to work, they must think if the murder of 10 women it every day affects them, if that affects them, I would ask them to support this initiative," she emphasizes.

Also, for managers who want to reprimand the decision of women to stand in solidarity with that day, it would be a way of violating them, González points out, "I would ask them where do they want to put their solidarity, with the company or with society?

"Our body is political."

The one-day initiative without women proposes not to go to work, for girls not to go to school, not to load gas, nor buy, sell, or pay anything.

On the proposal of not being present on March 9, Graciela Rock says she does not agree with the Mexican plan. The idea of not appropriating the public space "that not one woman is on the street; on the contrary, we must take it, reappropriate the spaces."

"Many of us are not going to be able to stop; we have to take care of our children. Nor can I stop the thesis. From another wing of feminism, it is spoken from a rosy idealization, because in the end, from a privileged perspective, you can stop for one day," says Collado, "the effort and struggle will be recognized."

AJ

(Traducción: Valentina K. Yanes)