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
Statement: International Women’s Day 2021
Global Women’s Strike & Women of Colour GWS – International Women’s Day 2021 CARING for PEOPLE and PLANET Against POVERTY and DICTATORSHIP Women (and men) in a number of countries are calling for a Care Income Now!, an income for all those – beginning with women, the first carers everywhere, and extending to all genders…
Event: Remembering Berta Cáceres, 8 March
Dear friends, We are forwarding information (below) about an 8 March International Women’s Day event 3-4.30pm (UK time) in memory of Berta Cáceres. Her daughter Bertha Zuñiga Cáceres will be speaking. Please share and circulate with your networks, thank you. Global Women’s Strike This International Women’s Day we remember Berta Cáceres, Indigenous leader and environmental…
Endorsers to the Open Letter to Governments – A Care Income Now!
#MeToo Survivors, US ACT UP Philadelphia, US Action for women and Awakening in Rural Environment, Uganda AGHS legal aid cell, Pakistan Alexandria House, US All Africa Women’s Group (AAWG), UK Alliance for Global Justice, US ALTSEAN-Burma, Thailand ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism), US Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and…
IWRAW Asia Pacific: ‘Wages For Caring Work’: An Exploration Of The Care Income Campaign
In this interview, IWRAW Asia Pacific asks two activists based in Thailand about the concept of care income, its history in the women’s rights movement, and its role in building gender-just post-COVID-19 economies. Liz Hilton works with Empower Foundation, a sex-worker-led advocacy organisation in Chiang Mai, and Bee Pranom Somwong works at Protection Desk Thailand,…
Event: Care During COVID-19
Political Freshers’ Week: Care During COVID-19 Wednesday, October 21, 2020 at 6 PM UTC+01 – 7:30 PM UTC+01 Hosted by Cambridge SU Women’s Campaign and Cambridge University Justice 4 Workers Campaign Online Event This Political Freshers’ Week, the Women’s Campaign and Justice 4 Workers Cambridge have teamed up with Global Women’s Strike to discuss one of the most…
Event: Selma James & Nina Lopez at Gender, livelihood & impact of Covid
Tuesday 1 Sept, 2.30-4.30pm: Selma James and Nina Lopez speaking at conference session on: Gender, livelihood and the impact of Covid organized by the Feminisms and Degrowth Alliance. To register: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/economy-and-livelihoods-after-covid-19-tickets-116083505891 This session is organized by the Feminisms and Degrowth Alliance (FaDA). It contains intersectional feminist reflections on Covid-19 and the politics of social reproduction, the Care Income, and…
#CareIncomeNow
READ OPEN LETTER TO GOVERNMENTS – A CARE INCOME NOW! See TRANSLATIONS so far.ENDORSE here. List of organizational and individual endorsers. Watch the webinars “From Coronavirus and Beyond: Valuing Caregiving — The Unwaged Work that Protects People and the Environment” and Care Income Now! webinar. Read press coverage and the press statement about the #CareIncomeNow…
Speeches: from #CareIncomeNow webinar
Selma James, Care Income Now webinar, 3 April 2020 Margaret First I’d like to introduce Selma James, delighted to introduce Selma, who is the founder of the International Wages for Housework Campaign way back in 1972. She is the coordinator of the Global Women’s Strike. She is the author of many feminist classics, including the…
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