Activists want Wednesday to be a “day without women.” The organizers explain that because women receive “lower wages and experiencing greater inequities, vulnerability to discrimination, sexual harassment, and job insecurity,” they want bring awareness to these injustices. Similar to the “day without immigrants” earlier this year, women are being called upon to take a day off from paid and unpaid labor, avoid shopping unless it’s at a small women-owned business, and wear red in solidarity. As a result, several schools in three states are closing down for the marches.

Not everybody is so convinced there needs to be a march, however. The Concerned Women of America, for example, point out that the United States has the highest proportion of women in senior management positions (43 percent) of any country in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (women comprise 47 percent of the U.S. labor force); the U.S. was ranked eighth globally in gender equality by the World Economic Forum; 24 percent of working American women are in professional fields (compared to only 16 percent of working American men); 46 percent of American firms are owned or co-owned by women.