Last week, on March 8th, around 200,000 people took to the streets of Barcelona to protest in a pacific demonstration for women's rights and equality, celebrating International Women's Day. But not only in Barcelona; people all around the world decided to stop for one day and vindicate unfair situations, like gender violence and abuse or the salary gap between men and women, and basic rights for women, that are being crushed by patriarchal laws and institutions.

Just as in 2018, different feminist groups decided to call on a women strike on March 8th. The idea and message behind was to show and make a clear statement: the importance of women in society and that, without them, it simply does not work. According to different associations and organizations, there was a 70% of effectivity on the strike, which is a little bit higher than last year's, but pretty close.

These demonstrations, that took place all across Spain, were a huge success, and most important, inclusive. Men, as allies, were invited to stay in the mixed groups of the demonstrations, always respecting the non-mixed sections, where all the space was for women to lead their own fight, with everyone's support.

The message was clear: women will not stand anymore in front of an unfair patriarchal system that allows gender violence in all of its shapes. With the rise of right and far right political parties all around the world, this fight - alongside with other fights like the LGBT one - needs more support than ever and, together, we are stronger.

The demonstrations all along the country were peaceful, cheerful and vindicating. In Barcelona, it finished with the readings of different manifests made by different organizations. Besides, there were some concerts in the city center until midnight to celebrate another year of success.