2017 : How Women’s Long Walk to Freedom Became a March

Table of Contents:

• Abstract
• Histography
• Analysis
• Bibliography/ Works Cited

Abstract:

In the year 2017 following the surprise electoral victory self-admitted sexual assaulter Donald Trump to the presidency many women around the United States sought to mobilize so it was insured that their opposition to the incoming administration’s hostility to women was on full display. The idea for a march in Washington DC started as a suggestion by grandmother on Facebook, and quickly spiraled into a full-scale protest event which would go down as one of the largest in America’s history

Author Bibliography

Zayne Hardin is a psychology undergraduate student at Cleveland State University. And his daily role working at his local public library system.Zayne makes an effort to always try and advocate for those who do not receive the advocacy from society they deserve . This has led Zayne to take a great interest in world history and political science , which was one of the main inspirations behind choosing the Women’s March as a topic of interest .  After graduation, Zayne hopes to continue his advocacy in the mental health profession as a mental health counselor for children and teenagers

Histography:

The Women’s March of 2017 was a movement built out of a lot of different elements and as such it has many histotrophic camps it fits in including protest history, feminist history, and organizational history. In looking into the Women’s March there are a few key sources that help set the scene of what the March both represented and was like. In the realm of primary sources two that proved very beneficial for this project were Meredith Clark’s 2017 interview with organizer Linda Sarsour- “What This Women’s March Organizer Wants Everyone to Know Now.” (Glamour, February 2, 2017. https://www.glamour.com/story/womens-march-organizer-linda-sarsour-we-need-to-translate-the-emotions-and-frustrations-of-right-now.) and Ariellekandel’s “An Interview with Elissa Ha, Women’s March on Washington Organizer.” from the same year (New Women New Yorkers, September 15, 2017. https://www.nywomenimmigrants.org/an-interview-with-elissa-ha-womens-march-on-washington-organizer/.). These two sources were prefferable to me persoanlly due to their utilization of those who helped bring the event to fruition.As for secondary sources two that stood out for their statistical effort to understand the event were Julia Smith’s “Why We March! Feminist Activism in Critical Times: Lessons from the Women’s March on Washington.” from 2020 (Women’s Studies International Forum, May 11, 2020. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277539520300170.) & KM Weber’s 2022 piece “The 2017 Women’s March on Washington: An Analysis of Protest-Sign Messages.” (OPUS at UTS | Open Publications of UTS Scholars, November 28, 2022. https://opus.lib.uts.edu.au/handle/10453/163797.). These sources paired together helped provide a broad picture of both the logistical and emotional aspects of the Women’s March

Analysis:

Organization

In the process of transforming a Facebook movement into a full-scale protest event many obstacles were raised- such as how to fund the event, how to get as many protesters to show up as possible, and what message the event would rally behind. Through careful networking backers for the march were found in the form of non-corporate, activist organizations who felt a vested stake in opposing the incoming Trump administration. According to march organizer Linda Sarsour groups such as “Planned Parenthood, for example, was the premier sponsor of the Women’s March. And other groups—like the National Resource Defense Council, NARAL, Pro-Choice America, MoveOn.org, the Human Rights Campaign, and even labor unions like 1199, SEIU, and the American Federation of Teachers—came out in support.” (Clark 2017). With the issue of funding, becoming less of a headache for the organizers the next obstacle was to make sure enough people would show out for the event, and that they were showing up for a concise cause. Through much deliberation amongst the variety of organizers it was decided that all types of issues impact women harder than men in society so the overarching theme of the march would be the solidarity women share with one another. This period of time was hectic as it comes according to DC March organizer Elissa Ha who put the reality of the situation bluntly stating: “We are all volunteers here. We had to organize buses for people, fundraise for communities that didn’t have the money to go and do local events to give people information about the national march. We had nine weeks to plan all of this. It was crazy.”  (Ariellekandel 2017). The attention of the organizers would then shift towards the local events Ha referenced as well as having a visible social media effort to get folks to RSVP for the event. With all the organizational hurdles met the only thing left for the organizers to do was to make it become a reality.

Location

Washington DC was chosen as the location of the march for a few key reasons. The first and most obvious was that they were scheduling the march for the day after Donald Trump’s inauguration, so having it in DC would provide a visible contrast between the amount of support there was for the agenda of the March and Trump being sworn in. Another key reason for DC being chosen is the fact is the nation’s capital and has a storied history as a backdrop for large protest movements with it, being the backdrop of Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous march on Washington. The main stretch in front of the US Capitol was delegated for the protest, setting the stage for the culmination of the organizers’ efforts.

The map above provides a look at where the 2017 Women’s March was held .

The Day Of

As the sun rose on Washington DC on January 21, 2017 nobody who had work to organize the march could’ve predicted the massive success that would occur in regards to their turn out with Brittanica summarizing after its conclusion “as many as 4.6 million people attended the various events in the United States, and it was widely believed to be the largest single-day demonstration in that country’s history “ (Britannica 2024)  . With the realization that the march would be much larger scale than anticipated, the event organizers kicked off the march in front of the capitol. The streets of DC were flooded in a wave of pink cat hats and pro-women signage as there was no mistaking this event was going to make their messages known; as Sarsour later put it “I helped organize the Women’s March on Washington to send a very strong message to the administration on their first day: We will not be silent.” ( Clark 2017). When marchers finally arrived to their destination, they were greeted by a group of influential speakers such as Gloria Steinem, Angela Davis, and Harry Belafonte. The marches would eagerly listen to the testimony of those who paved the way for their movement and shared their enthusiasm via chants and cheering. As the event came to a close there was no mistaking that a message had been sent to the new administration: women would not go silent into the night of Donald Trump.

Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman interviews March organizer Linda Sarsour at the event providing a good vantage point of what the energy at the actual march was like.

The March in Numbers

In the aftermath of the women’s march on DC, there were a few key numbers that helped paint the picture of the event. The first number that is important to understanding the full picture of the women’s march is the projected 4.6 million people who took place in the demonstration(s) that day. These numbers dwarf the turnout from the inauguration the day before and show that the organizers successfully proved their point in drawing a contrast between the support surrounding trump’s incoming agenda and the agenda that they were pushing forward with their march. Another key number that helps in understanding the event is the breakdown of the demographics that showed out in support of the movement. Professor Jennifer Martin shines a light on this with her journal ‘Why we March! Feminist activism in critical times: lessons from the women’s march on Washington’ which broke down the turnout. In this journal, Martin found that while the march made a concerted effort to have a multitude of groups advocated for, this didn’t translate into the demographics that ultimately showed up at the event as “The majority of participants in this study were White, heterosexual females. The widest diversity observed among participants was in their political party affiliation, although here too the majority identified as Democrat.” (Smith 2020) . While this factor may suggest that there was a lack of diversity in the event, a clearer picture is gained when looking at the final key factor – the messages seen at the event. The journal ‘The 2017 Women’s March on Washington: An Analysis of Protest-Sign Messages’ published by the International Journal of Communication put forth an analysis of the signs seen at the march and broke down the numbers behind the causes that were most visible. the findings of this analysis showed that the overwhelming amount of the signage from the event fell into the camp of women’s solidarity with the journal stating signage utilized “ diverse and broadly defined “unity principles,” and in five additional action frames that emerged spontaneously at the march: (1) unity, (2) women as powerful agents of resistance, (3) reappropriating pussy and words for the vagina, (4) criticisms of Trump, and (5) defining and critiquing feminism” (Weber 2022) . This shows that ultimately the women’s march achieved at their goals of creating contrast with the inauguration crowd and having a march that was vocal in their solidarity for the progression of women’s rights – despite not having the most diverse coalition show out.

Infographic Photo Source : EcoworldReactor: “2017 WOMENS MARCH” Redefing the Protest in new Age

Aftermath

In the aftermath of the 2017 women’s march on DC there was an understanding that going forward with the Trump administration, there would be a vocal opposition present. The infrastructure that helped make the Women’s March as successful as it was, would go on to mobilize against the Trump administration in regards issues including police brutality and anti-Muslim legislation. Following a tumultuous four years in office Trump would go on to lose reelection in 2024 to Joe Biden. As a byproduct Kamala Harris was named to be the first female vice president ever, serving in his administration. As time progressed women’s words for push to the forefront once again, when the Supreme Court overturn its Roe v. Wade ruling making it so women once again, had to take to the streets to advocate for their independence. These events in the aftermath of the women’s march go to show that when women mobilize and organize, they are capable of changing the temperature of the nation. It is wild to think the whole thing started on the pages of Facebook as the event changed the national dialogue so poignantly that a mere four years after the march occurred there were thousands at the capitol once again- only this time to see a woman sworn in as Vice President.

Timeline: Before and After the Women’s March

Bibliography / Works Cited:

In Paper:

• Weber, KM, T Dejmanee, and F Rhode. “The 2017 Women’s March on Washington: An Analysis of Protest-Sign Messages.” OPUS at UTS | Open Publications of UTS Scholars, November 28, 2022. https://opus.lib.uts.edu.au/handle/10453/163797.
• Smith, Julia, and Jennifer Martin. “Why We March! Feminist Activism in Critical Times: Lessons from the Women’s March on Washington.” Women’s Studies International Forum, May 11, 2020. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277539520300170.
• Ariellekandel. “An Interview with Elissa Ha, Women’s March on Washington Organizer.” New Women New Yorkers, September 15, 2017. https://www.nywomenimmigrants.org/an-interview-with-elissa-ha-womens-march-on-washington-organizer/.
• Clark, Meredith. “What This Women’s March Organizer Wants Everyone to Know Now.” Glamour, February 2, 2017. https://www.glamour.com/story/womens-march-organizer-linda-sarsour-we-need-to-translate-the-emotions-and-frustrations-of-right-now.
• “Women’s March.” Encyclopædia Britannica, November 2, 2024. https://www.britannica.com/event/Womens-March-2017.

In Timeline:

• “Abigail Adams to John Adams – ‘Remember the Ladies.’” American Battlefield Trust. Accessed December 10, 2024. https://www.battlefields.org/learn/primary-sources/abigail-adams-john-adams-remember-ladies.
• Truth, Sojourner. “Ain’t i a woman?” Accessed December 11, 2024. https://tag.rutgers.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Aint-I-woman.pdf.