On Monday, November 7, 2016, women across France walked out of their workplaces at exactly 4:34 pm in an act of solidarity against the wage gap. The prominent feminist group, Les Glorieuses, calculated the wage difference between men and women in France by adapting Eurostat’s method and applying it to data in 2016. Inspired by the yearly October walkouts in Iceland, the feminists in France encouraged all women to action to protest this blatant inequality.
In France, women are paid 15.1 percent less than men. This means that women work an extra 38.2 days a year than men to earn the same amount of money. Les Glorieuses calculated the difference to see that November 7 at 4:34 pm would be the exact time that they would stop being paid for in 2016 compared to men. Of course, the amount of time spent doing domestic work and other things related to a “proper housewife” was not accounted for, but it was also pointed out during the protest.
Their Twitter hashtag, #7novembre16h34, has gained national attention, so much that their prime minister, Manuel Valls voiced his support, as well as Education Minister Najat Belkacem.
While mostly women were drawn to this protest, men were encouraged to join as well on that day. The aim is to bring everyone together to make equality happen in the workforce. Their goal is to gain enough supporters to be able to petition for equal pay in the near future, and, fortunately, it looks like their cause is growing stronger.
Since the walkout was a peaceful protest that wasn’t forced upon anyone, it has yielded good results. This movement has gained many supporters all across France, and has gone viral on the Internet, gaining supporters from the U.S. and other countries as well. France joins Iceland in the growing number of countries supporting the end of the gender wage gap, which is prominent in Europe. It’s definitely a positive step forward for feminism, and it’s comforting to see that this formula can easily be applied to America as well. We have the ability to walk out and raise our voices to protest the gender inequality that has been present, unfortunately, since the beginning of time.
Statements like these are necessary because it takes action (peaceful action, specifically) to make any kind of progress in society. It’s the strong voices that rise above and challenge the norms that can be suffocating and debilitating. With all of the horrors witnessed in 2016, it’s important to remind people that change can be achieved with peace. It only takes a single voice to inspire others to say, “We can.”
And we will.