Several women in the United States stayed at home from work and wore red on Wednesday, International Women's Day, to demonstrate how important they are when it comes to the US economy.
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The protest titled 'A Day Without a Woman' saw hundreds of Americans march along the streets of Washington and even in other US states to express that women's rights are human rights. The march had also been organised a day after US President Donald Trump's inauguration.
The turnout of women protesters on the streets this time was comparatively smaller in many places, where crowds gathered in few hundreds. Data on the number of women who responded to the protest call and skipped work was not immediately available.
"Trump is terrifying. His entire administration, they have no respect for women or our rights. They need to deal with us as an economic force,'' 49-year-old Adina Ferber said, who took a vacation day from her job at an art gallery to attend a demonstration in New York City, according to the Associated Press.
The event held on Wednesday was inspired by an earlier protest titled 'A day without an immigrant,' which was held last month after Trump signed a controversial travel order, which prohibited immigrants from at least seven Muslim-majority countries to enter the United States.
Wednesday's event was part of the United Nation-designated International Women's Day. The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that leadership positions in the society are predominantly held by men, and ''outdated attitudes and entrenched male chauvinism'' are widening the economic gender gap. Guterres added that closing the gap would add $12 trillion to global GDP by 2025.
The UN chief expressed concern that even today ''around the world, tradition, cultural values and religion are being misused to curtail women's rights, to entrench sexism and defend misogynistic practices.''
