Women's March

WOMEN’S MARCH. In 2016, when Hillary Clinton campaigned for president, feminists were thrilled at the prospect of the first woman president. Even though she won the popular vote by three million votes, she lost the electoral college. Her defeat to Donald Trump, whose crude comments about women and opposition to every feminist goal, infuriated women across the nation and throughout the world. On January 21, 2017, in the wake of Trump’s triumph, more than 470,000 women protested and marched in Washington, DC, chanting “We will not go away.”

“Sister Marches” in Chicago, Boston, Seattle Los Angeles and thousands of small towns across the country joined them, making it the largest single-day demonstration in the nation’s history. In Madison, Wisconsin, organizers planned for a march of 50,000; more than 150,000 turned out. In Vermont, democratic socialist Bernie Sanders addressed a crowd of 15,000 at Montpelier, the state capital. He advised the protesters: "Listen to the needs of women. Listen to the needs of the immigrant community. Listen to the needs of workers. Listen to what's going on with regards to climate change ... Modify your positions. Let's work together to try to save this planet and protect the middle class."

Many protesters wore knitted pink hats to protest Trumps boast—in an open mic-- that he could grab any pussy he wanted. When asked why they had staged these marches, women answered that they wanted to voice their opposition to Trump personally as well as his anti-feminist policies. To the Washington Post, one woman responded, “We just want to make sure that were heard,” said Mona Osuchukwu, 27, a DC native. “I want her to know that she has a voice,” she said of her three-year-old daughter, Chioma, who was with her at the march. No matter what anyone tells her, especially as a black woman in America.”

Around the globe, millions of women joined these American protesters, demanding human rights for women, same-sex marriage, racial and gender justice, support for climate change, and the end to worker’s exploitation. Trump‘s electoral success had created a world-wide protest against everything he promoted. In Mexico, women protested at the US Embassy, shutting down streets, and from Antarctica Twitter user Linda Zunas posted pictures of people taking part in the event. Six hundred and seventy protest marches on seven continents demonstrated together for many causes, but especially equal rights, social change, human rights, racial and gender justice. Climate change was on the agenda everywhere.

The origins of the march began on November 8, 2016. Teresa Shook, a retired attorney and grandmother living in Hawai`i took to Facebook to suggest a march on the capital. Her idea quickly gained traction, and women in cities all over the world began planning marches for January 21, 2017. Although many pundits described these marches as merely anti-Trump protest, the organizers, including many women of color inspired by the Black Lives Matters, had framed the protests as a support for all kinds of social change.

In the immediate aftermath, organizers put together a program to encourage and train women to run for office at all levels of government. They introduced a new imperative: “Don’t; just march, Run!” In 2018, a record number of women ran for political office, and the Women’s March sponsored voter registration and “get out the vote” campaigns. In Nevada, for example, women achieved their first majority in the state legislature.

The organizers of the 2017 Women’s March also set the stage for subsequent marches, which were held annually, although at an increasingly smaller scale. The mission statement specified: “Women’s March in committed to dismantling systems of oppression through nonviolent resistance and building inclusive structures guided by self-determination, dignity and respect.” At the local level, the Women’s March rallied members to organize in advance of the 2020 presidential campaign and to take a public stand on the politics at stake. On September 19, 2020, the Women’s March sponsored nearly 8,000 candlelight vigils to commemorate the death of the woman’s rights jurist and Supreme Court associate, Ruth Bader Ginsberg.

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Hewitt, Nancy. No Permanent Waves: Recasting Histories of U.S. Feminism. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2010.

Stansell, Christine. The Feminist Promise: 1792 to the Present. New York: Modern Library, 2011.

Women’s March. Official Website. https://womensmarch.com