The Women's March

In our latest journey into the realm of political advocacy our class focused on protests and their ability to (or to not) enact change in the system. From our readings, class discussions, and our guest speaker, who is an organizer herself, we’ve learned that protests can be effective. This effectiveness comes as the results of specific steps taken to organize and tactics used to spread the message and reliant on a few key components of any protest. It is the spirit of this understanding, that protests are powerful political tools, that I examine the Women’s March: what did they do right, what did they do wrong, and what’s next for the movement. 

The analysis, “Do Political Protests Matter?” from Madestam, Shoag, Veuger, and Yanagizawa-Drott, found that political protests can “build political movements that ultimately affect policy.” While their analysis focused on the Tea Party, their examinations could be applied to many large protests due to the nature of their experiment (the rain). One important aspect Madestam, et. al. evaluated was the impact of a protest’s size - considering the Women’s March was one of the largest political protests (over 400,000 people in D.C. alone, and over 600 sister marches) maneuvered in modern history, we can hope that the impact is similar or greater than what the study found from the Tea Party movement. The impact of a protest’s size will most likely be perceived through political action or on election day as the study found that larger protests usually lead to incumbent representatives voting more conservatively, increased voter turnout, increased strength of movement, and higher chances of incumbent party leaders resigning. We’ve already seen some of the repercussions of the Women’s March in this past month’s elections, with multiple women being elected, including the first openly-transgender woman, and higher turnout from many minority groups. And as we’ve all learned, the election of Trump and the Women’s March inspired thousands of women to run for their local government office.

The sheer size of the protest in D.C. alone is enough to strengthen a political movement, but as Corrine McConnaughy noted in her article, “4 Lessons for Today’s Women’s Marchers from the Suffrage Movement,” it is the 600+ sister marches across the country and around the world that may be more politically important. The sister marches in local communities also reflect Madestam, et. al’s findings that “personal interaction within small groups of citizens serves as a crucial channel for the transmission of new political views leading to increased political activism.”

As we discussed in class, protests are effective in building awareness or making a statement before energy can gather, addressing a problem before change can happen, and demonstrating public opinion in a loud manner. Shom Mazumder argues in his Washington Post article, that a successful movement has three “crucial factors in common,” of which the Women’s March has incredibly displayed two: messaging and nonviolence. The messaging began with a meme that spawned a worldwide movement and produced some very iconic images, specifically the Pink Pussy hats, and many creative posters. This creativity, our speaker mentioned, is critical to secure an enduring message, and helps to bring home ideas in a powerful and meaningful way. Our speaker made a strong point in acknowledge that a protest’s leverage is people power; she also mentioned that protests are only “one tool in the toolbox.”

And that’s what a protest is, a tactic, not the end all of a campaign. This brings us to exploring what the Women’s March did wrong in their protesting spirit. One of the biggest issues with the Women’s March was that they did not have a game plan beyond the protest and their platform was not released until a couple days before the march took place. McConnaughy argues that it’s okay not to know exactly what the policy objectives are yet and that gorals and a policy agenda will reveal itself, but Mazumder and our speaker contend that organization is key, and is the missing “crucial factor” all successful movements have in common. Our speaker was very adamant that when organizing a protest, one must have a ‘game plan’ and must design a strategy that sets goals and finds targets, while inspiring a base. I would agree that simply protesting without the next steps in mind is harmful to the overall accomplishments of a march. Even one of the march’s founders, Carmen Perez, admitted that “" we didn't necessarily have a lot of time to think about next steps."

Without the organization in place the messaging can be thrown off. Our speaker made it clear that mobilizations designed smartly are the most effective. So, what went wrong with the Women’s March in terms of organizing and messaging? For one, inclusivity was a huge issue and barrier for many participants. Our speaker acknowledged that in creating a mobilization, one must create a narrative of support, but this narrative fell short for many women who did not join because of the lack of intersectionality presented in what most people call “white feminism.” The organizers themselves were an intersectional group of strong women, but due to a lack of organization and messaging, many people did not realize this until afterwards, or they did realize and still felt a lack of support among their peers. The Women’s March might have been one of the largest in history, but does it count if we forget a large number of the population? Another issue with inclusivity could be the very liberal messaging and manner of protest - although the movement’s platform and beliefs are obviously more liberal ideas, Republican women who voted against Trump did not feel as though they could support the movement. Our speaker also brought up the issue of classism and elitism in protesting - there is a large population of people who don’t have time either physically or mentally to care about the issues because they are more focused on keeping the lights on and food on the table.

Without organization, the follow-up is non-existent or useless. Our speaker acknowledged that follow up from a protest is key in retaining engagement with participants. Her suggestions: have fieldwork/canvassing teams in the moment to connect with participants at the height of their political action, respect people’s time, keep in touch through meetings and town halls, and master the art of the one-on-one. All of these suggestions should be included in the game plan - which was not made. The Women’s March inspired thousands of women the day of and kept the momentum going for a few months after that. However, their efforts fell short - on their website, the Women’s March Global has a “10 Actions in 100 days” plan that would include writing to your Congressional representatives, attending town halls, or participating in the “Day Without Women” demonstration. Nevertheless, only three plans are listed on the website and many were not followed through within the “100 days.”

So, what’s next for the Women’s March? It’s been almost a year since the pinnacle moment - what do the organizers do from here? How do they re-engage the population and sustain the energy from the original movement?

The Women’s March group has released an extensive platform of ideas and beliefs that share their focus and policy agenda. Carmen Perez noted that the movement does not focus on any single issue, but instead the “focus was to make sure that [the movement was] intentional, intersectional and made sure that people feel heard.” This increases the inclusive intentions of the movement, and as our speaker noted there is currently an opening in social movements for anyone to become involved. Our speaker also stressed the importance of making sure communities are being heard as organizers and in solidarity with those who need the most support - it’s about building connections between communities. Organizing shifts communities from where they are to where they need to be - the Women’s March has all the resources, people, and potential to accomplish this.

It’s important to remark that policy achievements take time and energy, and that sustaining the energy from a large protest may be difficult to do, but it is what keeps the agenda moving. The movement will need to engage as many people as possible on as many of their ideas as they can - not every woman/ally can be focused on every aspect of the agenda, but if you garner enough support for each one from different groups, the coalitions will help to make a difference. One coalition that the Women’s March is working with right now is the Women’s March Youth EMPOWER coalition with Peace First, Rise to Run, Teen Vogue, The Justice League NYC, The Gathering for Justice, and Rock the Vote. The program upholds the Women’s March values and platform, and its goal is to provide young people with the tools needed to create high school and college chapters that guide students in making a positive impact in their communities. As McConnaughy mentioned, coalitions are hard, but necessary movement work.

The Women’s March was symbolic of so many ideas and emotions that our country is feeling. With the proper work and motivation, it can continue to make waves and hopefully, one day, enact change.

{Sources for Women's March information!}

https://www.womensmarch.com/global/

https://www.womensmarch.com/mission/

https://www.npr.org/2017/04/28/525764938/100-days-in-womens-march-still-inspires-but-can-the-enthusiasm-hold

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/womens-march-organizers-address-intersectionality-as-the-movement-grows_us_5883f9d9e4b070d8cad314c0