Women in more than 30 countries around the world will participate in the “Day Without A Woman” strike on Wednesday, refusing to do both paid and unpaid labor. Organizers say the strike is intended to draw attention to the work done by women that goes unnoticed, underpaid, or underappreciated.
In the U.S. Capitol, dozens of Congress’ female representatives say they are supportive of the strike’s goals and are planning to use the day to highlight the ongoing issues facing women in America and across the world.
But they aren’t planning on walking off the job.
“Women are already underrepresented in the Senate and with President Trump and Republicans in Congress pushing an agenda that’s harmful to women, we can take nothing for granted,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) said in a statement provided to ThinkProgress on Tuesday evening. “So I’ll be at work in the Senate tomorrow.”
“I will be coming to work because our country can’t afford a day in the Senate where women’s voices are not heard,” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) agreed.
In some ways, a day without women in Congress would be business as usual for the United States, which lags far behind much of the world when it comes to female representation in government. Women account for just 19 percent of lawmakers in the House and Senate combined. By contrast, women account for 51 percent of the country, according to the most recent U.S. Census reports.
For female lawmakers, though, it’s more than a question of representation. Given the current administration and the current makeup of Congress, they say their constant presence is needed to fight for legislative priorities that could make life better for women and girls.
“Someone asked me why don’t we not show up to work — and we talked about and considered a number of the options,” Rep. Lois Frankel (D-FL) told ThinkProgress over the phone. “But we decided that this action was probably the most prudent given what’s going on in Congress, the mischief, the actions by the President and the Vice President and the Republicans.”
Frankel is co-chair of the Congressional Caucus for Women’s Issues, a bipartisan congressional membership organization that includes all the women in the House. Frankel’s Republican counterpart, Rep. Susan Brooks (R-IN), didn’t respond to our request for comment.
“We feel like we cannot turn our back for one second. We are really here safeguarding the rights of women and girls and their families and we need to be here to do that,” said Frankel.
To show solidarity, Frankel and other female lawmakers reached by ThinkProgress will be wearing red and spending the day working to highlight the pressing issues facing women and girls on social media and in floor speeches. A spokesman for Sen. Tammy Duckworth also said that her office would order lunch from a women-owned restaurant, and Sen. Gillibrand and Rep. Frankel both said that they’d only be shopping at women- and minority- owned businesses.
“We feel like we cannot turn our back for one second.”
In the House, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), the Democratic Women’s Working Group, and House Democrats will hold also hold a press event honoring both International Women’s Day and “A Day Without A Woman” on the Capitol steps at 12:30.
“We will march out of the capitol together,” said Frankel.
At the event, lawmakers will also be joined by representatives from Planned Parenthood — another female-led organization that will be keeping its doors open today.
For Planned Parenthood, the decision not to close is its own statement: Earlier this week, House Republicans unveiled an Obamacare replacement bill that would strip Planned Parenthood of federal funding for providing family planning services to low-income women. Faced with GOP-led attacks threatening its clinics, “these doors stay open” has become a rallying cry for the women’s health organization.
Frankel called the GOP’s health proposal a “triple whammy” for women and families, pointing to the projection that it would cover millions fewer people than Obamacare and the disproportionate burdens it would place on women. The legislation is just one example of why women lawmakers are more important than ever, said Frankel.
There’s quantitative evidence backing this up: A 2005 study looking at Congress in the 1990s and found that liberal female lawmakers co-sponsored an average of 10.6 bills related to women’s health, while their liberal male colleagues averaged only half of that.
In this administration, most progressive women’s issues will be an uphill battle for lawmakers. Still, they want to find ways to fight.
“We cannot go back. We sent that message last week when we heard the President speak and we wore suffragette white, and really it was a message that we don’t want to go back. We earned a lot of these rights,” said Frankel. “But we don’t want to just be a voice of resistance. We will be putting together sound proposals on family leave, affordable child care, pay equity, and we will offer to work with Republicans on those issues. We are not here just to resist but to promote equality.”