25,000 people demonstrate in Barcelona on International Women's Day, claiming 'care sustains life'

Around 25,000 people, according to local police, wearing purple colored clothes gathered in Barcelona's city center to demonstrated on International Women's Day, on March 8, demanding better recognition and fair compensation for care work. 

Rally-goers met at Plaça Universitat before 6 pm, ahead of a two-hour march that took them to Arc de Triomf, on Passeig Lluís Companys.

Aside from Barcelona, protesters also rallied in major cities across Catalonia such as Girona, Tarragona, and Lleida under the slogan ''care sustains life,'' emphasizing the essential, yet undervalued role of care work in society. While on Friday, hundreds of students took to the streets, on Saturday there were feminist organizations, labor unions, and many social activists.

Among the attendees, there were people of all ages and genders, including newborn babies to old women defending for what they "believe in," as María told Catalan News.

She was protesting for "equality on all levels," including work, as, despite not being her "problem" as she earns the same as her colleagues, there are "many cases where men earn more just for being men, and that cannot be the case," she said.

Equality was one of the main chants heard throughout the march. Roberta, another demonstrator, considers that people "have it wrong when talking about the feminist movement, and they think it is wanting to be superior, but no. We just want equality."

Sara has been coming to the International Women's Day marches since she remembers, despite having to "praise our gender all days of the year." She hopes for one day to not be necessary to attend such protests, but "as long as it is required, I will continue to come."

"We are always on social and economic inferiority, and at the end of the day, we just want to be treated equally. Neither better nor worse, equally. We are all equal," she told this media outlet.

Friends Shirley and Gal also took part in the demonstration in Barcelona, with Shirley pointing out that equality for women and all gender is still not happening. While Gal, pointed out that those who criticize the movement is because, "maybe, from their perspective, they feel like women have already gained enough rights, but they maybe don't see the full picture," she said to Catalan News.

"There are still women who are abused, and these perpetrators are not brought to justice. There is still so much inequality in the world, and maybe these people are not willing to see the full picture," she added.

Demonstrators released a manifesto before the rally highlighting the importance of care work and its exploitation under the current economic and political system. It argues that both paid and unpaid care work is a fundamental source of social and genders inequality, calling for collective responsibility from men, governments, and society. 

The key points of this year are topics such as: recognition of care work, criticism of the economic system, environmental justice, labor rights and migration, public services, and feminist and climate justice.  

The manifesto ultimately calls for a systemic transformation that centers justice, sustainability, and feminist values in all aspects of life.

Most of the attendees at the protest were women, however, there were also several men of all ages supporting their counterparts. Despite that, half of those aged 25 years or younger consider that the feminist movement does not promote a fair and democratic society, and one out of three says that the movement has gone "too far."

Experts, asked by ACN in the week leading to the International Women's Day, say it is all down to beliefs of "loss of privilege," and "appealing" speeches from far-right political parties and movements.

Filling the Sink

Women in the tech field are few and far between. Catalonia is one of Europe’s tech hubs, and 2024 was a record-breaking year with over 2,285 emerging companies, according to data from ACCIÓ, the Catalan Agency for Business Competitiveness. 

But despite this apparent success, women co-founding and leading tech startups still only made up less than 20% in 2022.

One of the UN's 17 goals for sustainable development is to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. To coincide with International Women’s Day on March 8, we dedicate an episode of Filling the Sink to female entrepreneurs, particularly those in traditionally male-dominated fields such as technology.

Press play below to listen to our Filling the Sink podcast on tech tales or subscribe on Apple Podcasts, YouTube or Spotify.