Women workers in Spain are marking International Women's Day with an unprecedented strike targeting gender inequality and sexual discrimination.
Work has been halted as part of a 24-hour strike organised by the 8 March Commission and backed by 10 unions and some of Spain's top women politicians.
Scores of marches under the slogan "if we stop, the world stops" are taking place across Spain.
Events marking the day are being held in dozens of other nations.
What's happening in Spain?
Women taking part have stopped working and have been urged by organisers to spend no money and ditch any domestic chores for the day.
Police were called to stop protesters blocking main roads in Barcelona but some women pickets still brought areas to a standstill.
Public transport nationwide is available but at reduced services and flights have also been affected.
Evening marches in Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao, Valencia and a number of other cities are leading events in 200 Spanish locations.
REUTERS
Many prominent women in the media were absent from their programmes.
The 8 March Commission is behind the strike. Its manifesto calls for "a society free of sexist oppression, exploitation and violence" and says: "We do not accept worse working conditions, nor being paid less than men for the same work."
A poll of 1,500 people for the El Pais daily suggested 82% supported the strike, while 76% thought women in Spain had harder lives than men.
Feminist groups only want women to strike to show how important their absence is but Spanish law does not allow for single-gender strikes and men were welcome to support it.
The two main unions had called for members to stop work for two hours in the morning, and said that 5.3 million people had joined the stoppage.
Some have opposed the strike. The ruling centre-right party, the Partido Popular (PP), said the action was "for feminist elites and not real women with everyday problems".
However, two of the five female ministers in Spain's conservative government, Agriculture Minister Isabel García Tejerina and the president of the Madrid region, Cristina Cifuentes, said they would work longer hours to show the capacity of women.
Actress Penelope Cruz cancelled planned public events and said she would go on "domestic" strike.
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EPA
The mayors of Madrid and Barcelona - Manuela Carmena and Ada Colau - are also backing the strike.
But the National Federation of Self-Employed Workers told El Pais that self-employed women remained overwhelmingly at work.
In Spain, women were paid 13% and 19% less than their male counterparts in the public and private sectors respectively, data from the European Union's statistical provider Eurostat said.
What's happening elsewhere in the world?
AFP
Here's a round-up of some of the International Women's Day events so far:
- A group of prominent Catholic women is meeting in Rome to demand a greater say in Church governance. But the list of speakers has angered the Church and Pope Francis has declined to attend or celebrate Mass. A former president of Ireland, Mary McAleese, described the Catholic Church as an "empire of misogyny"
- Activists in China have been angered by the approach of retailers who have dubbed the day "Queens' Day" or "Goddesses' Day" and offered women customers discounts on goods such as cosmetics
- Protesters against sexual abuse wore black, waved roses and held banners of the #MeToo movement at a rally in the South Korean capital, Seoul
- Several female journalists in Ukraine started a Facebook drive called "I am not your darling", in response to President Petro Poroshenko's use of the term in a reply to a woman reporter
- French daily paper Libération raised its price on Thursday - but only for men. Women pay the standard €2, while men have to cough up another 50 cents to highlight the gender pay gap. President Emmanuel Macron also pledged to "name and shame" companies that pay women less than men for doing the same work
- Prince Harry and fiancée Meghan Markle went to Millennium Point in Birmingham in the UK to encourage young women students to pursue a career in maths or sciences
- Irish Health Minister Simon Harris said it was fitting the country had on this day finalised the wording for a referendum on whether to liberalise abortion
While leaders across Africa praised the role of women, the government in Ivory Coast decided to update a list of jobs that women are banned from doing. The labour laws now preclude "work that exceeds the ability and physical capacity of women, or work that presents dangers which is likely to undermine their morality, for example, working underground or in the mines".
What are they saying on social media?
UK PM Theresa May announced the launch of a consultation to improve protection of those suffering domestic abuse. She sent out a tweet in support of International Women's Day.
Indian tennis star Sania Mirza expressed her concern about the need for such a day.
The Women's Day Twitter page highlighted one nod by a corporate giant, turning an M into a W.
Many others simply sent wishes or highlighted achievements in their nations and organisations.
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