International Women's Day and the Church
This Sunday, March 8, is International Women’s Day (IWD). International Women’s Day began as a garment workers’ strike in NYC in 1908 to protest horrendous working conditions. But if you google IWD today (I just did), you’ll see some disappointing headlines, mostly about fashion and makeup brands celebrating IWD through special sales and snack companies offering free goodies to women as a marketing ploy. There’s even an article about “which shoe brands to support this IWD.” It’s cringeworthy.
Wouldn’t it be better to honor this feminist labor day by decrying the inhumane conditions of Asian garment workers in the fast fashion industry? A once-radical day has been thoroughly defanged and commodified in the U.S. Some fierce activists are reclaiming the day, though: in Mexico, for instance, women are calling for strikes against a horrifying epidemic of femicide. (The Mexican Bishops’ Conference has even declared its support for the strikes!)
Call To Action is proud to be part of a global coalition of Catholic reform groups who are truly honoring the history of International Women’s Day with a project called Catholic Women Strike. Catholic Women Strike is a coalition project inspired by Maria 2.0, a grassroots German initiative of lay women committed to change in the Catholic Church. Representing “crystallized fury over a male-only priesthood and bishops' foot-dragging on sex scandals,” Maria 2.0 has gained commanding attention of the Church in Germany and European Catholic media.
Maria 2.0 gained international prominence in May 2019 when it called for a German-wide Church strike for women, encouraging them to engage in a one week boycott of official services and their volunteer efforts in churches. Since then, momentum hasn’t stopped. Maria 2.0 has been organizing other demonstrations for equal rights for women in the Church such as the human chain around Cologne Cathedral in September. The Catholic Women Strike coalition will be launching later this spring, calling upon the women of the Catholic Church to “strike” from their parishes for the month of May 2020. Keep an eye out for more information about this soon!
In the meantime, though, the International Women’s Day witnesses this weekend are a precursor to the May actions. Women-led coalitions will be protesting at churches around the world, from Germany to South Africa to Spain to India. Here in the U.S., the Women’s Ordination Conference will be witnessing in NYC, FutureChurch and Voices Speaking are witnessing in Cincinnati, FutureChurch is organizing another witness in Cleveland, and local Catholic organizers are witnessing in Hartford. Read more about the International Women’s Day efforts here — and join your local witness!
International Women’s Day should not be commodified, drained of its radical substance. Whether or not you join a witness for women’s rights in the Catholic Church this weekend, I’d encourage you to do whatever you can to concretely stand in solidarity with women. The Catholic hierarchy professes theologies that justify and normalize violence against women, and that violence is concretely enacted against the most vulnerable women, especially women who live with intersecting systems of oppression because of their race, class, immigration status, or sexuality.
Women (particularly white women) in the United States have achieved much greater political and socioeconomic power in the United States since 1908, but IWD shouldn’t become a day where we get free snacks and buy discounted makeup. This IWD, let’s get to the roots of systemic violence against women. As Catholics, let’s defy our tradition’s participation in that violence and claim a deeper, more divine tradition of liberation.
