A Day Without Women: A tweet that made Mexico a ghost town for a day

By Carlos Emilio Ramírez Sánchez

A tweet that made it possible that for a whole day no woman was seen on the streets or at any office, and that no woman worked for that day.

How social media made possible a day without women in Mexico?

During the first couple of months of 2020 Mexico experienced the worst period of violence in the last couple of years, but it was the worst period of violence against women in its history.

Mexico registered 5,751 murders, of which 2,858 were committed during January 2020. ^[1]Still, the population´s discontent came when the rates of femicide began to increase. Every week a new case of femicide would appear on the news and social media causing terror in the population and anger against the government because of the disinterest to stop the increasing cases of femicide.

The violence against women had never been at its peak until February of 2020 with 92 registered cases of femicide, of which 24 were of little girls and teenagers. The discontent began to increase when many perturbing images of the femicides started circulating on social media causing terror and disgust.

These events caused many feminist movements to begin many protests in the major Mexican cities. During these two months, many women joined the movements and went to the streets to protest in peaceful and violent ways.

The protest appeared not to have the expected result because the government didn’t take action to stop the femicides that spread all over the country, so a feminist movement called “Las brujas del mar” made a post on Twitter on the 18^th of February that every woman in Mexico should join the cause on March 9^th to not appear on the streets, to not go to work, that girls should not go to the schools or colleges, and no woman should buy anything that day^[2], so men would notice the importance of women in society and the government would see the discontent and importance of women in the national economy and they should take action to stop the increasing crimes.

The invitation spread across every type of social media for days until the post became a reality.

Bibliography:

• Un día sin mujeres: ¿qué es y cómo surgió el paro del 9M? Milenio. México. 9/03/2020 5:59. https://www.milenio.com/politica/paro-9-de-marzo-que-es-y-de-donde-surge 
• Galván, Melissa. México cerró febrero con 2,858 asesinatos y un aumento de 24% en feminicidios. Expansión. 20/03/2020 08:35 pm. https://politica.expansion.mx/mexico/2020/03/20/mexico-febrero-2858-asesinatos-aumento-feminicidios
• Martínez, Fabiola. Víctimas de feminicidio, 24 niñas y adolescentes en enero-febrero. La Jornada. México. 27/03/202 08:08 https://www.jornada.com.mx/ultimas/politica/2020/03/27/victimas-de-feminicidio-24-ninas-y-adolescentes-en-enero-febrero-7629.html 

1. México cerró febrero con 2,858 asesinatos y un aumento de 24% en feminicidios. Expansión. 20/03/2020 08:35 pm. https://politica.expansion.mx/mexico/2020/03/20/mexico-febrero-2858-asesinatos-aumento-feminicidios ↑
2. Un día sin mujeres: ¿qué es y cómo surgió el paro del 9M? Milenio. México. 9/03/2020 5:59. https://www.milenio.com/politica/paro-9-de-marzo-que-es-y-de-donde-surge  ↑