On ‘A Day Without a Woman,’ it’s business as usual for most

In retrospect, a better name for the International Women’s Day protest Wednesday might have been “a day without a liberal suburban public school teacher.”

Staffers at three large U.S. school districts played hooky Wednesday in honor of the general strike dubbed “A Day Without a Woman,” but elsewhere it was business as usual for most women.

That included Democratic women in Congress, who came to work wearing red before participating in a lunchtime “A Day Without a Woman” press conference on the Capitol steps, then headed back inside without missing any votes.

“There’s so much mischief going on in this Congress with the Republicans, we dare not turn our backs,” Rep. Lois Frankel, Florida Democrat, who chairs the House woman’s caucus, told CNN.

The U.S. protest, sponsored by the Women’s March on Washington, urged women to avoid engaging in paid or unpaid work, to wear red and to shop only at local women-owned businesses in order to call attention to the “economic injustices women and gender nonconforming people continue to face.”

Rallies and speaking events were scheduled in two dozen U.S. cities, although the protests failed to draw the throngs that marked the Jan. 21 women’s march.

Police said 13 protesters were arrested after refusing to clear the road at a march outside Trump International Hotel in New York City.

“Hey hey, ho ho, Donald Trump has got to go!” chanted activists, many wearing red, in video of the protest posted by ABC7 in New York.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi shared a photo of herself shaking hands with women, some wearing pink hats, after the press conference with the message, “Honored to join my fellow Democratic women (and men!) standing in solidarity with Day Without a Woman!”

That said, the refusal of even liberal Democratic women to skip work came as evidence that “A Day Without a Woman” suffered from a serious lack of buy-in.

The enthusiasm gap was chalked up to factors such as the event’s mixed political messages, the logistics of holding the protest on a Wednesday and accusations that the strike catered to “privileged” women who could afford to take a day off.

Scheduling the event on International Women’s Day also allowed Republicans to get in on the act. First lady Melania Trump held a luncheon that was attended by top GOP women such as White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and Maine Sen. Susan M. Collins.

White House spokesman Sean Spicer discussed President Trump’s initiatives to promote women, including the launch of the U.S.-Canada Council for Advancement of Women Entrepreneurs and Business Leaders.

If any women refused to show up for work at the White House, however, Mr. Spicer said it wasn’t obvious.

“I’m not aware of any that are not here. Everyone I’m aware of has shown up and is working really hard to advance the president’s agenda,” Mr. Spicer said at a press briefing.

He also said women’s contributions to society deserve more than one day.

“It’s a free country. People have a right to express themselves,” Mr. Spicer said. “But I think that we should on a daily basis, not just one day a year but 365 days a year, appreciate the contributions that women make in all of those categories.”

Three large school districts — Prince George’s County in Maryland, Alexandria in Virginia and Chapel Hill-Carrboro in North Carolina — canceled classes Wednesday after large numbers of staffers said they would take the day off.

While some parents cheered their decision, others were resentful over having to scramble for child care as well as being forced to support a political message with their tax dollars.

A host of left-wing causes

“By giving the teachers who wish to ’strike’ a free day off instead of making them take a sick day, you are supporting their cause,” said Adam Paul on the Prince George’s County Public Schools page on Facebook.

Critics complained that “A Day Without a Woman” excluded more women than it included by embracing a laundry list of left-wing positions. Among the stances taken by the Women’s March: opposition to the Dakota Access pipeline, support for labor unions and a “living minimum wage” and “the sex workers’ rights movement.”

Debbie Brown, president of the Colorado Women’s Alliance, said International Women’s Day had been “hijacked with a divisive political agenda that encourages women to take the day off in protest of the Trump administration.”

“Instead of striking, or taking a day off to protest, we encourage women to work together, find common ground, not turn a celebratory day into a narrow political agenda,” Ms. Brown said.

Pro-Israel women were chilled by the involvement of Rasmea Yousef Odeh, a Palestinian convicted in 1970 of participating in a terrorist bombing in Jerusalem that killed two men and was one of the organizers of the international “A Day Without a Woman.”

Roz Rothstein, CEO and co-founder of the pro-Israel group Stand With Us, called it “disturbing to anyone paying attention that a convicted terrorist is being viewed as a victim and a hero and included as an organizer of activist causes.”

“Any group that lends credibility to a confessed murderer who orchestrated the deaths of innocent Israelis — or anyone — is not only justifying violence, but perpetuating it,” Ms. Rothstein said. “It is unfathomable that any group that wants to promote women’s rights would choose to sully its reputation and damage its objective by aligning itself with Odeh.”

Pro-life women used the occasion to mark the “the millions of girls who are missing from the world because of abortion, in particular those who were targeted because they were girls,” said Ashley McGuire, senior fellow with The Catholic Association.

“That is why millions of women like myself want nothing to do with the dark irony of claiming to be pro-choice and celebrating a day without women,” Ms. McGuire said in a statement. “We will happily go to work today, both in caring for our families, and in fighting for an end to the anti-woman injustice of abortion.”

The pro-life movement has been excluded from the Women’s March, which holds a strong pro-choice stance. One of the two premier partners of the Women’s March is Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider.

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List, said: “Strike organizers miss the mark when they fail to stand up for the smallest and most vulnerable of our sisters.”

The Associated Press reported dozens of events worldwide marking International Women’s Day. In Warsaw, actress Jessica Chastain took part in a protest walk while in town for a gala screening of her movie “The Zookeeper’s Wife.”

In Manila, a crowd of hundreds affiliated with left-wing women’s groups burned a mock U.S. flag with Mr. Trump’s image in front of the U.S. Embassy.

Seven women were arrested in Moscow’s Red Square as part of a protest.

• Dave Boyer contributed to this report.