--- title: Why I Protested the Women's Strike description: I'm resisting a movement that claims to represent all women, when in fact it purposefully excludes millions of us. canonical: https://time.com/4695837/barefoot-pregnant-womens-protest/ author: Ashley McGuire article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-03-08T21:00:36.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:54:33.554Z article:section: Ideas og:title: I'm Spending Today Barefoot, Pregnant, Baking Cookies for My Husband og:description: I'm resisting a movement that excludes millions of women og:url: https://time.com/4695837/barefoot-pregnant-womens-protest/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt09430c9fe2073145/6988bd9cfb4eacee268910c6/womens-day-march2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4500 og:image:height: 2531 og:image:alt: US-POLITICS-INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: I'm Spending Today Barefoot, Pregnant, Baking Cookies for My Husband twitter:description: I'm resisting a movement that excludes millions of women twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt09430c9fe2073145/6988bd9cfb4eacee268910c6/womens-day-march2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # I'm Spending Today Barefoot, Pregnant, Baking Cookies for My Husband > Sponsored content. 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It explains how TIME's journalism is made, from the first pitch through the editorial decisions behind a finished story or cover. #### How can I read about how TIME chooses its covers? Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=35fe1f0b-81c1-4788-8c78-2bf4b08bd858&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1) ## Video: How the World Celebrated International Women's Day 2017 [Watch (HLS stream): How the World Celebrated International Women's Day 2017](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/YjWK8qUn.m3u8) (1:44)  _Published 2017-03-08. On March 8, people around the world observed International Women's Day_ by [Ashley McGuire](https://time.com/author/ashley-mcguire/) ## Ashley McGuire Mar 8, 2017 9:00 PM UTC  Activists protest the Trump administration and rally for women's rights during a march to honor International Woman's Day on March 8, 2017 in Washington, DC. Activists protest the Trump administration and rally for women's rights during a march to honor International Woman's Day on March 8, 2017 in Washington, DC. Brendan Smialowski—AFP/Getty Images by [Ashley McGuire](https://time.com/author/ashley-mcguire/) ## Ashley McGuire Mar 8, 2017 9:00 PM UTC I have spent today’s “[Day Without A Woman](http://time.com/4694185/womens-strike-day-without-a-woman-labor/)” barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen, baking cookies for my breadwinner husband and my two children. That may sound like a joke, but it’s not. That’s just my way of protesting a movement that claims to represent all women, when in fact it purposefully excludes millions of us. There is the fact that the organizers of first the Women’s March and now this one have stated plainly that [being pro-choice ](http://time.com/4375065/pro-choice-catholics-scotus-abortion/)is a foundational brick in their platform. When they discovered that the [New Wave Feminists](http://time.com/4649910/donald-trump-abortion-progressivism/), a young and secular organization of women, held pro-life views, they were dropped as a March partner and anti-abortion women were uninvited from participating. In other words, adherence to abortion rights mattered more to them than resisting what they viewed as attacks on women. Alienating the roughly half of American women who identify as anti-abortion didn’t seem to matter. Then there is the irony that many increasingly reject sex as a valid category to begin with, which places a giant question mark over the status of women in this brave new gender-fluid world. The organizers of the Day Without Women have fully embraced the gender identity movement, stating that the women’s movement also stands for “gender nonconforming people” and that they are fighting for “gender justice.” I share the concerns of even some left-wing feminists who argue that when we make being a female a matter of personal interpretation, both the unique needs and contributions of women are diluted and undermined. How can women make claims on the basis of our womanhood in a world that denies that womanhood is a real and permanent category to begin with? And how can we demand broader respect for certain conditions unique to women, such as pregnancy, when we are increasingly pressured to adopt gender-neutral language, lest we offend the world with the realities of our womanhood? Indeed, the feminism of the so-called women’s resistance is increasingly angry, crass and extreme, and in turn unfamiliar and unappealing to so many of today’s women. We aren’t interested in redefining objective womanhood out of existence through “gender justice.” We don’t want to be measured on male terms and told we are only equal with our husbands if we bring home the same paycheck or spend the same amount of time with our children. Studies keep stubbornly finding that we _want_ to spend less time at the office and more time at home with our children. And we aren’t convinced that abortion is a necessary hallmark of a society where women are equal with men. To many of us, insisting on that claim is the ultimate bodily denial of woman in favor of a wombless male mold. So how does this proud woman plan to #resist? By embracing my difference and being a present woman, to my husband, to my children, to my work and to my community. I find strength and power in lovingly living the life that I chose. _McGuire is the recipient of SBA List’s Young Pro-life Leader Award and a Senior Fellow with_ [_The Catholic Association,_](https://thecatholicassociation.org/who-we-are/ashley-mcguire/) _and the author of_ [Sex Scandal: The Drive to Abolish Male and Female.](https://www.amazon.com/Sex-Scandal-Drive-Abolish-Female/dp/1621575810) ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] [ APPLAUSE ] [ MUSIC ] [ FOREIGN ] [ MUSIC ] [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Today we are here on International Women's Day to declare, once and for all, that women's rights are human rights, and human rights are women's rights. 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