The organisers of the Women’s March on Washington say that the strike is intended to highlight which companies are helping in the fight for equality and which are holding women and oppressed communities back.

“We ask: do businesses support our communities, or do they drain our communities?” the group wrote on Instagram.

“Do they strive for gender equity or do they support the policies and leaders that perpetuate oppression? Do they align with a sustainable environment or do they profit off destruction and steal the futures of our children?”

While this women’s strike is likely to be the most prominent in recent history, the idea did not originate with the organisers of the Women’s March. Last October, thousands of women across Latin America went on strike to protest male violence against women, after 16-year-old Argentinian student Lucía Péréz was brutally raped and murdered. The organisers of that strike – known as #MiércolesNegro, or Black Wednesday – called on women to stop working, studying and other activities for one hour.

“In your office, school, hospital, law court, newsroom, shop, factory, or wherever you are working, stop for an hour to demand ‘no more machista violence’,” they said.

A date for the Women’s General Strike has been set