By:Elizabeth Sagarin
International Women's Day celebrated with global strike
On a frigid Manhattan street corner in the heart of the garment district last Thursday, Sandy Opatow raised her fist in the air and yelled into a microphone, It's International Women's Day and we are on strike!
Opatow, a graduate of Oceanside High School in 1984, was a primary orchestrator of the New York division of the Global Women's Strike that took place March 8 in 65 countries. For the second year in a row, women around the world stayed away from work to call attention to the poor working conditions both women and men are subjected to.
But the focus was on women, because, according to an originator of the global strike, the International Wages for Housework Campaign, white women earn 72 cents for every dollar a man earns doing the same job, black women earn 63 cents and Hispanic women earn 53 cents, a decrease from figures documented in 1992. On average, men earn 49 percent more than women, according to Government Census Statistics from 1997.
Women's unwaged work caring for children and others reduces their availability for paid employment. Women are available for less overtime and hold two-thirds of all part-time jobs, the campaign said, citing figures from the census.
The demonstrators' demands are to equalize the discrepancies but also provide payment for caring work
