OUR TAKE
Whether it’s paid or unpaid, labor is not a monolithic term for women, and women are as diversified as the ways they labor. Labor can define both our human capacities and our limitations. The reality is that for most women in the world, labor—regardless of whether it’s compensated, exploited, enslaved, volunteered, forced, or stolen - is a story beyond a paid job.
As feminists, we are committed to examining the complex discomfort embedded in issues of labor and opportunity. At the same time, we must also learn how to survive in the very systems we critique. We must all finds ways to both survive and resist, and these are not prescriptive acts. We cannot assume that one person’s strike ensures or bolsters another person’s freedom. Not every laboring woman has such choice.
We at Bitch Media recognize that labor, compensation, and visibility are assigned to women based on socioeconomic factors directly related to race, citizenship, ability, gender identity, sexuality, and proximity to Whiteness. We support those who choose and can strike today, exercising an uncommon privilege to willingly walk away from labor for a day in the form of protest, but we uplift and recognize the women and gender nonconforming folks who cannot untangle labor from their livelihood or sense of safety. To those whose lives and labor are intrinsically connected and still rendered invisible, we see you.
There’s a plethora of ways to explore justice, feminism, and labor, and today, our homepage is packed with reads that’ll help you dig right in.
MEDIA ROUNDUP
The “Day Without a Woman” strike will be mostly a day without privileged women. [Quartz]
Here are 50 ways people expect constant emotional labor from women and femmes. [Everyday Feminism]
From the margins: Women’s writing and unpaid labor. [VIDA Women in Literary Arts]
Women faculty perform more invisible care work than men. [Feministing]
Let’s put a price tag on unpaid housework. [Forbes]
You can thank undocumented immigrant workers for keeping you informed every day. [The Nation]
At work as at home, men reap the benefits of women’s invisible labor. [Quartz]
As a woman married to a woman, my strike looks different. [Man Repeller]
SUPPORT THESE ORGANIZATIONS TODAY (AND EVERYDAY)
The Garment Worker Center in Los Angeles addresses the systemic problems of wage theft, unhealthy and unsafe working conditions, and the abusive and inhumane treatment faced by garment workers on-the-job.
Queens Neighborhoods United is a community-based organization made up of members who believe in establishing democratic control over land-use, policing, and immigration policies that directly impact member families, homes, businesses, places of work, and neighborhoods.
We need to improve wages and working conditions for our nation’s 12 million restaurant workers, and that’s what the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United is all about.
The National Domestic Workers Alliance supports the nannies, housecleaners, and home care workers who are organizing to win a more just democracy and an economy that cares for us all.
Hundreds of thousands of workers enter the United States every year on temporary visas through the U.S. guestworker program. The National Guestworker Alliance supports those workers.
Pride@Work is a nonprofit organization that represents LGBTQ union members and their allies.
WHAT ELSE SHOULD WE COVER?
We know you’re curious about something that we haven’t covered related to labor, justice, and feminism. Bitch Media is a community that’s made up of up curious feminists: What are you wondering about? Let us know and we’ll raise your question at our next meeting!
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