About Us
We are an international grassroots network campaigning for recognition and payment for all caring work, in the home and on the land.
As part of a dynamic change of direction we demand a guaranteed income for all – of all genders and identities, beginning with mothers, Indigenous peoples and natural farmers – who do the work of:
- caring for people of every age and condition;
- protecting and regenerating the land and the water from poisonous chemicals which ruin the soil, the health of those who work it, the nutritional value of the food, and the climate;
- defending human rights and the natural world, risking their lives;
- surviving and resisting the climate change we did not cause which, following centuries of imperialist plunder, is endangering lives and livelihoods in the Global South, forcing millions to leave their home and all they hold dear.
For more information about us click here.
Contact details
Email: gws@globalwomenstrike.net
Address: Crossroads Women‘s Centre, 25 Wolsey Mews, London NW5 2DX.
Phone: +44 20 7482 2496
Our History
In March 1972, at the Women’s Liberation conference in Manchester, England, Selma James put forward Wages for Housework for the first time. It was one of six demands in the pamphlet Women, the Unions and Work…or What Is Not to Be Done, written for the conference.
It is now 50 years that WFH has been campaigning for financial recognition for the biological and societal work of reproducing the whole human race – whatever else women do.
This caring work goes on almost unnoticed everywhere, in every country and culture. It is rarely prioritised economically, politically or socially, and women are discriminated against and impoverished for doing it.
The WFH Campaign has been shaped by the autonomous organisations that formed within it – women of colour, queer women, sex workers, women with disabilities, single mothers, and a men’s network which shares its perspective on caring and autonomy. It confronts poverty, sexism, racism, deportation, criminalisation, rape, militarism, the theft and destruction of land and the natural world, and other forms of violence and discrimination against any gender. It defends the relationships we choose, and especially the bond between mother and child.
In 2000, the WFH Campaign launched the Global Women’s Strike (GWS). Since 2021 its Care Income Now campaign brings together the care and protection of people and the planet. Its international network over the years has included Canada, France, Germany, Guyana, India, Ireland, Italy, Peru, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Trinidad & Tobago, Uganda as well as UK and US, and contacts in many other countries.
Archives: 50 YEARS OF CAMPAIGNING
Latest News
Press Announcement: International and Community Gathering in Philadelphia, June 9-11
End Women’s Poverty: A Care Income, A Movement Whose Time Has Come What: International and Community Gathering: End Women’s Poverty – A Guaranteed Care Income for All Caregivers of People & PlanetWhen: June 9-11, 2023Where: Crossroads Women’s Center, 5011 Wayne Ave, Philadelphia PA 19144, and online The Global Women’s Strike and the new Crossroads Women’s…
Taking Agroecology to scale: Learning from the experiences of Natural Farming in India
Learning from the experiences of Natural Farming in India, this new publication has been compiled by the Alliance for food sovereignty in Africa. Download a copy of it for free here below.
Event this Friday – Join the Women’s Speak Out at XR’s The Big One
Friday 21 April, 1pm, Downing Street, London SW1A 2AA. XR’s The Big One – four days of actions 21-24 April to bring together 100,000 people around Parliament to get this government to act on the climate emergency. On Friday – “Unite to Survive” day – diverse networks of mothers, grandmothers, other carers and people with disabilities will…
Selma James speaks at Oxford Real Farming Conference: A Care Income to Protect the Land, the People and the Natural World
Speakers: Selma James, Swati Renduchintala, Pranom Somwong, Dee Woods, Jyoti Fernandez. As mothers, carers, farmers/farm workers, land and human rights’ defenders, women do most of the work of feeding (starting with breastfeeding) and protecting families and communities, the soil and the environment. For doing this fundamental caring work of society, unwaged and low-waged, we are…
Care Income leaflet for 2023 Oxford Real Farming Conference
Campaigning for an income for all who care for people, the soil and the natural world can: • Strengthen the movement against environmental destruction & global warming • Address poverty & other injustice suffered by those, overwhelmingly women, who do this work unwaged or low-waged • Redirect economic & social priorities internationally towards nourishing food (starting with breastfeeding), clean water & air, and the care & protection of all life • Encourage all genders & identities to commit to this lifesaving life-enhancing work.
Draft international petition: A care income for all caring work for people and planet
Caring for others is the foundation of every society. Yet this work, done mostly by women, in the home, on the land and in the community, is devalued, unwaged or low waged, leading to poverty, dependence and endless work. The pandemic and above all the climate emergency have forced us to recognise that caring for and protecting people and the natural world must become the universal priority.
Nadja News: Ten times women’s unpaid care work was recognised in history.
Cooking, cleaning, gathering food and water, and caring for children and the elderly are vital for families and societies. Yet this work, performed by women 75% of the time, has seldom been given the recognition it deserves, creating huge inequality around the world. Here are ten times unpaid care work has been recognised for what it…
What Mothers and Other Caregivers Want: Fill in the International Survey.
We write to bring to your attention our What do mothers and caregivers want? international survey. We urge you to fill it in and/or circulate it among family, friends and social networks if you haven’t already. The survey is being circulated in different countries and four languages so far – English, Italian, Spanish and Thai – and has…
Video: Wages for Housework: 50 years of campaigning – Empowering Women: A Care Income for People and Planet
Watch the webinar here: https://www.facebook.com/GlobalWomensStrike/videos/389912809261517 Empowering caregivers is advanced as a strategy against poverty and for climate justice. This webinar showcases international efforts from the 1995 UN Beijing conference decision to measure and value unremunerated work in the home, on the land and in the community, to the Wages for Housework Campaign which spearheaded the…
Women and mothers of South Peasants Federation Thailand have said what a Care Income would mean to them as people who care for the family, the community, and the land.
A Care Income would mean: Economic liberation .. it would mean being independent from the men Now I have to manage to provide for everything on a tiny amount of money. Every single day I have to spend a lot of time thinking and planning how to manage. If I have a care income I…
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