October 29 - Alice Doesn’t Day

On this day in Labor History the year was 1975. 

That was the day that the National Organization for Women, or NOW, called for a strike by women across the nation. 

They called the action, “Alice Doesn’t Day.” 

This referred to a critically acclaimed movie by director Martin Scorsese that came out the year before, entitled “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.” 

The main character in the film is Alice Hyatte, who pursues her dream of being a singer after she is widowed. 

It was lauded by feminists as a story of women’s empowerment. 

NOW used the film title, and asked women to participate with the slogan “Alice doesn’t...you fill in the blank.”

Women were encouraged to participate in the day however they could, including refraining from volunteering, shopping, and if possible working for one day to demonstrate their importance to the economy. 

Women who could not skip work, were asked to wear arm bands to show their solidarity with the cause. 

In an interview published in the Chicago Tribune, NOW President Karen DeCrow explained, “There is a myth that women in the work force could go home, but if they did our economy would stop.  If all the secretaries did not come to work, all things would stop.” 

But not all women were excited about the day.

Some anti-feminist women decided to protest the day by wearing pink, baking cookies and performing other stereotypical female tasks. 

While NOW called the event a success, Time magazine deemed it “spectacular failure.” 

One critique was that the event reflected the white, middle class dominance of the women’s movement. 

Working class women, and especially women of color, had a much more difficult time withholding their labor.