AROUND 10,000 men, women and children, many dressed in purple, took part in Tuesday evening’s march in Valencia to mark International Women’s Day,
Organised by Valencia’s Cooordinadora Feminista and the Moviment Feminista under the slogan “Women are making a feminist revolution!”, the event brought together some 200 organisations demanding greater equality for women and according to the national government delegation more than 10,000 marchers took to the streets.
The demonstrators on this year’s march had many objectives: fighting against gender inequality denail, domestic violence, demanding equality, free abortion without harassment, as well as the abolition of prostitution and surrogacy.
Starting in Plaza San Agustin at 7pm the march wound its way through the city, a river of purple, accompanied by drums and chanting, finishing at the Serranos Towers.
The regional government was represented almost in its entirety, with president Ximo Puig praising the high numbers of young people on the march and calling on men to “step up” and help tackle the situation of “profound inequality” which still exists between men and women today.
Regional Minister for Equality, Mónica Oltra,said that this year’s slogan “caring for yourself is feminist” was a response to the need for an equal distribution of time dedicated to caring for others. Women spend more than twice as much time as men caring for others, Oltra insisted that the job of caring should be equally divided between men and women, “so that women can look after themselves”.
The Valencia Report 