If every woman went on strike on #ADayWithoutAWoman, these workplaces would hardly notice
If women strike on Wednesday in the same numbers they marched on Jan. 21, they have the potential to bring the country to a screeching halt — or at least cause everyone a massive inconvenience.
Women's absences will be particularly difficult to ignore in education, health care, human resources and social service, fields women have long dominated. Anticipating a dearth of teachers on Wednesday, some schools have already decided to cut their losses and close for the day, including one Virginia public school system which made the call after 300 employees requested the day off.
But some industries employ so few women, every day is essentially a day without a woman. And when those very important men show up to work on March 8, their meetings, boardrooms and offices may very well look exactly the same.
Here are just a few companies that will hardly feel a thing on Wednesday:
1. Slack
The popular team messaging app released a report on the company's "diversity and inclusion" data in February, which revealed a stunning lack of women in its executive suites.
While women make up 43% of the company overall, those percentages fall dramatically when taking a closer look at the breakdown in engineering and technical departments. And if you look at how many women hold positions on Slack's board, you'll find that number plunges to zero.
"We ... recognize that we do not yet have a woman or person of color from an underrepresented group on our board of directors," the report reads. "When we begin to add outside directors, addressing this will be an important priority."
Well, Slack, there's no time like the present.
2. The Trump administration
Sure, the White House isn't your typical office — it's the highest office. And it's sorely lacking in women.
Save for secretary of transportation pick, the yet-to-be-confirmed Elaine Chao, and Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, Trump's Cabinet is overwhelmingly male. That fact really stings when, you know, a group of men all gather round to sign legislation limiting women's reproductive rights, for example.
Such was the case when Trump reinstated the global gag rule on Jan. 23, blocking nongovernment organizations from providing funds for abortion services as a gaggle of men looked on.
If Trump were to feel the effects of A Day Without a Woman at all, it would probably be if his top adviser Kellyanne Conway were to strike. Lucky for him, Conway thinks feminism is over.
3. Uber
In February, multiple women spoke out about a toxic culture of sexism and harassment at the ride-sharing company and in Silicon Valley more broadly.
It's no secret that Uber isn't exactly the best place to be a woman.
Part of the problem seems to be that there's a glaring lack of women on Uber's board, which is composed of seven men and Arianna Huffington, who just joined the board in April.
It's similarly unlikely anyone using the ride-share service would notice the absence of female drivers on A Day Without a Woman, considering that, as of April 2015, they only made up 14% of the company's drivers.
4. Airbnb
Airbnb has made a concerted effort to increase the company's female leadership, but if executives call a meeting on A Day Without a Woman, they'll notice everyone's accounted for.
As Mic previously reported, the home-sharing platform is among a slew of billion-dollar companies boasting a whopping zero women in the boardroom.
"We have more work to do to diversify our teams, and we've instituted a diversity rule, a new Airbnb policy that will mandate that all candidate pools for senior-level positions include women and candidates from underrepresented backgrounds," a spokesperson told Mic in an email in November.
5. Burger King
Burger King is a good old-fashioned boys' club, which makes a lot of sense considering its history of sexist ads.
According to a June Bloomsberg News report, the fast food chain is yet another company with an all-male board. When Burger King acquired the Canadian doughnut franchise Tim Hortons in 2014, a shareholder apparently pointed out the huge disparity and called for a vote on a new proposal to onboard more women.
But on A Day Without Women, Burger King board members will look around and notice not much has changed.
6. Time Warner
The Hollywood Reporter got a lot of flack for its March cover featuring five male CNN anchors, hosts, producers and president, dubbing them the de facto leaders of the network's "new war."
Senior producer Josiah Daniel Ryan did one worse, declaring on Twitter, "The future of media looks like this" — which is to say the future is male and mostly white.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, there are similar demographics going on at Time Warner, whose 10-person board of directors includes just two women.
What does A Day Without a Woman look like? Show us! Mic wants to see what your office looks like when women go on strike. Send your stories, photos and videos to ADayWithoutAWoman@mic.com and we may feature them in an article or on our social media channels.
