Across the country, women took part in demonstrations in city squares under the slogan “if we stop, the world stops”.
More than more than five million women took part in the feminist strike, according to Spain‘s two largest trade unions.
Organisers urged them to refuse to go to work, spend no money and ditch any domestic chores for the whole day.
The 8 March Commission, which is behind the strike, calls for “a society free of sexist oppression, exploitation and violence”.
The group’s manifesto adds: “We do not accept worse working conditions, nor being paid less than men for the same work.”
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Senior politicians including the mayors of Madrid and Barcelona, Manuela Carmena and Ada Colau, backed the strike.
But Spain’s ruling Popular Party said the action was “for feminist elites and not real women with everyday problems”.
Hundreds of women kicked off the action in Madrid with a pot-banging protest at midnight on the Puerta del Sol central square.
Teacher Concha Noverges, 50, said: “I lived under the dictatorship, I lived under democracy and we haven’t made much headway.
“A lot remains to be done and we, in the education sector, have a big role to play.”
Spain ranked 27th in a list of 188 countries in the United Nations’ latest Gender Inequality Index.
However, Spanish women’s access to the labour market remains well below the European average.
Experts say the lack of state support often pushes them to leave their jobs to care for their children or ageing parents.