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
#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…
PRESS STATEMENT: In response to Covid-19 and the climate emergency: organizations around the world call for a Care Income Now!
For more information contact: Global Women’s Strike (India, Ireland, Peru, Thailand, UK, US) +44 20 7482 2496 or +1 215 848 1120 The Global Women’s Strike and Women of Colour GWS, which have campaigned for financial recognition for unwaged caring work for decades, have joined with the Green New Deal for Europe to urge governments…
Ham & High: Kentish Town women’s group call for ‘carer’s income’ amid coronavirus pandemic
PUBLISHED: 18:15 07 April 2020 Sam Volpe Shoda Rackal and Kay Chapman ahead of the Crossroads Women’s Centre’s International Women’s Day celebration. Picture: Crossroads Women’s Centre The Kentish Town-based Global Women’s Strike (GWS) group have written an open letter to the UK government – and others around the world – calling for a “care income” to…
Programme for today’s Care Income Now! webinar
Please join us for a webinar exploring the implications of a campaign for a Care Income, North and South,to stop climate change, promote caring work for people and planet, and refuse work that is destructive to the environment and to the worker. Friday April 3, 11am-1pm US Eastern (4pm UK, 10pm Thailand) Pre-registration necessary Register…
CARE INCOME NOW! Sign the letter & join webinar
Dear Friends, We write to ask that your organization endorse the Open letter to governments – A Care Income Now! If you are not a member of an organization or are unable to confirm your organization’s endorsement, of course personal endorsements are also welcome. The Open Letter is jointly issued by the Global Women’s Strike,…
Open letter to governments – a Care Income Now!
Bahasa, Burmese, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Mandarin, Romanian, Spanish, Thai, Turkish, Urdu so far. Every day and in every emergency, unwaged or low waged caregivers, urban and rural, mostly women, often immigrant women, struggle to protect and care for people of every age and condition. But this work is kept invisible and therefore there is…
There is more than one pandemic. In response to the health, climate, poverty and war crises, we call for a Care Income Now!
The coronavirus pandemic comes on top of the climate pandemic, the poverty pandemic and the war pandemics which have hit single mother families, ill, disabled and older people hardest. It is exposing weaknesses in our ability to resist and survive physically and financially – from immune systems already compromised by poverty, pollution, war, occupation and displacement…