The following article by Kate Bahn and Annie McGrew was posted on the Center for American Progress website March 7, 2017:
On March 8, International Women’s Day, women worldwide are planning to strike in the name of equal rights. Dubbed “A Day Without A Woman,” the strike encourages women to take a day off from both paid and unpaid labor. Women comprise almost half of the U.S. workforce and thus could make a large economic impact by taking off work.
How exactly would a day without women affect the economy? According to the Center for American Progress’ calculations based on the labor share of the gross domestic product, or GDP, and women’s relative pay and hours of work, women’s labor contributes $7.6 trillion to the nation’s GDP each year. In one year, women working for pay in the United States earn more than Japan’s entire GDP of $5.2 trillion. If all paid working women in the United States took a day off, it would cost the country almost $21 billion in terms of GDP. Moreover, women contribute many millions of dollars to their state’s GDP each day, making their work crucial to the health of their local economies as well. (see Methodology for more detail) Continue reading “A Day in the U.S. Economy Without Women”