Retrieved from: https://www.womensmarch.com/
Anniversaries are often touted as celebrations, but they can also be challenging because they force us to assess what has changed or stayed the same in the amount of time being marked by the anniversary. The best anniversaries, though, are often an acknowledgement of the positive ways in which we have grown, while maintaining the best of ourselves. This past week, though, saw two important anniversaries that played out on the national stage. While last weekend marked the one-year anniversary of President Trump’s inauguration, it also marked the one-year anniversary of the historic Women’s March on Washington and its sister marches worldwide. Both events that had wide-reaching effects on politics but also the social environments within America’s borders and abroad.
While the first year of a presidency is of course of interest to political scholars, and at times the general populous, of greater interest this past week, was the second Women’s March. This increased attention could be attributed to a few things, including the organizers’ affirming that the original march was “a movement,” implying longevity, “not a moment,” and the rise of the #MeToo and Times Up at the end of 2017, which helped bring forth (some) women’s voices in a way that has not been witnessed in my lifetime.
The Women’s March organizers estimated that at the 673 registered marches on January 21, 2017, there were approximately 4,956,422 marchers, and while there is not yet an official count for this year’s march, attendance in cities large and small across the U.S. indicate that the first Women’s March wasn’t a fluke (2017). The New York Times reports that in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago attendance equaled, 200,000, 600,000, and 300,000 marchers, respectively, while outside of America’s three most populous cities, march attendance was also high when viewed in proportion to a city’s total population (2018).
A year after the most widely attended protest in American history, and after this year’s follow-up march also drew massive crowds across the country, I have a few important takeaways for myself:
1. For many of the attendees at the first march, it was their first time engaging in such an event, and for a neophyte such as myself, the infectious atmosphere of the March I attended gave me hope about what such a motivated group of people might be able to accomplish. I carried that energy forward, attending several other marches and rallies over the following months, learning how to best engage at those events and to use my power and privilege in aid of those who have been fighting these battles since before I even knew they existed.
2. While there have been complaints about the number of issues that the Women’s March attempts to address, the number is so high because there are so many issues currently facing women. Equal rights, healthcare, education, immigration, racial justice, environmental protections, and workplace harassment are all relevant to the women’s march movement because they all impact women’s well-being. Women are not a monolith, and if we are going to work for the betterment of all women, we must work to address all of the barriers that women face. To quote renowned feminist and poet Audre Lorde, “I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own” (1981). When I ignore my sisters’ struggles, I am sentencing us both to continued imprisonment.
3. Finally, Although, I have been inspired by the diversity of the speakers and leaders at the marches held across the country, some women of color and trans*women have expressed over the past year that they did not feel welcome at the first march, did not feel that the speakers represented them or that their stories were being shared, and that they would not participate in the 2018 marches. These complaints are valid, and worthy of attention and thoughtful consideration. The Women’s March is based in large part off of the protests and marches that have been organized for decades by women of color and lesbian and trans*women, and it is essential that white, ciswomen not overpower, or ignore, their contributions to this movement just because we are the newest arrivals at the protest party. Rather, we should be listening to their complaints and taking a hard look at ourselves and our actions, which, even if unintentionally, are making women of color and LGBTQ+ women feel sidelined, or outright unwelcome in the Women’s March movement.
Attending sister marches both this year and last, has opened my eyes to all that women can do when we come together and all that we still have yet to accomplish. The marches have not only given me direction but have also made me feel empowered. That has not been the case for all women, though, and that requires soul searching on the part of all who have felt the way I did as a result of the march. There’s so much more that needs to be done for equal rights and well-being for all women, and we must remember that the Women’s March is only the first step.
Written by: Margaret Brennan, M.A.
References
Women’s March (2017). Sister Marches. Retrieved January 23, 2018 from https://www.womensmarch.com/sisters
The New York Times (2018). Women’s March 2018: Protesters Take to the Streets for the Second Straight Year. Retrieved January 23, 2018 from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/20/us/womens-march.html
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