Women's March: What Now?

The Women’s March, a large-scale protest intended to reinforce women and human rights to the new administration, occurred in major cities across the world on January 21st, the day after Trump’s inauguration. Millions of people, men, women, and other gender-identified individuals alike, marched and protested together about causes that they cared about, from LGBTQ+ rights to religious freedom. Media outlets praised the march and labelled it a huge success, and all marchers were incredibly proud of their achievement.

However, there is an important looming question: what now?

The march was powerful and received global attention, but that’s the only extent of its effects right now; the millions of people who marched on that day did not stop the new president from reinstating the Mexico City Policy (also known as the Global Gag Rule) through an executive order, which bans non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from receiving federal aid if they support abortions. The placards, with strong and meaningful messages, did not seem to invoke any sort of change in attitude from Trump or any other conservative members who stand at the opposite end of the spectrum on any of these issues.

For the march to have a substantial effect, rather than ending the protests with a media flash, the marches should continue, at least on a smaller scale, and the organizers of the event should extend the project to become a movement. Looking at the Women’s March website, it is clear that the organization realizes this, and that it is trying to sustain the passionate voices of everyone who participated through their newly introduced “10 Actions 100 Days” project. Their project seems much weaker and meaningless despite the scale and media coverage of the protests; their first suggested action is to send a postcard to your senator.

Although on the surface, this seems like a good starting point, this only covers the underlying problem of the organization: the march was about any issue that people wanted to march about. For a protest immediately following the inauguration, controversial issues such as reproductive rights to environmental protection were easy to combine into a larger-scale movement. For this to continue as a unified movement, however, it will be nearly impossible for one organization to fight for all these different causes under one name. Without specific subchapters, it is likely that unclear division and the organization becoming a mere internal power struggle will also occur. Sending senators postcards about whatever issue we feel passionate about may remind the senator of the importance of the issue, but will not translate to any of the politicians as a larger, more significant movement. A more viable and effective move would be to create smaller organizations fighting for specific topics including at-work gender equality, LGBTQ+ rights, abortion rights, and religious freedom. Another option would be for the Women’s March organization to direct smaller organizations supporting the same cause to unite and work together. The Women’s March organization would then be used to bring more attention and funding to each of these issues, showing everyone that this demographic of women fighting for their rights is now too substantial to be ignored.

The broad and flexible scope of the issues that the march claimed to stand for certainly helped gather more people and proved how many people had been and continue to be oppressed in different areas and ways. Not only will conflating these different issues be a very ineffective approach to highlighting and solving each of these issues, but it will also depreciate the differences and importances of the issues standing on their own. Without clarification, subdivision, and expansion of the Women’s March organization, the march will become nothing but a showcase of the different needs of the people. Much further action is required for the political leaders to meet these needs.

Erin ‘18