The Atlantic

Imagining an Economy Without Women

On Wednesday, the organizers of the Women’s March encouraged participation in the “A Day Without a Woman” strike.
Source: Shannon Stapleton / Reuters

In 1908, 15,000 female garment workers marched through New York demanding shorter hours, better pay, and voting rights. More than 100 years later—on what has been dubbed International Women’s Day in remembrance of such protests—women across the U.S. are striking in a walkout called “A Day Without a Woman.” Wednesday’s  protest, organized by Women’s March on Washington, is meant to show what the American economy would look like without female labor or consumers, and to push for gender equality in the workplace.

According to , a left-leaning think tank, it would cost the U.S. gross domestic product $21 billion if all American women who work outside of the home for pay took a day off. And yet despite this staggering figure, than their male counterparts in most professions.

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