The Women’s March

On January 20th of 2018 women from all over the country stood together to protest for women’s rights. People from cities throughout the United States, including New York, Chicago, Austin, Philadelphia, Seattle, and more, took part in this protest, and a total of 34 countries participated. The Women’s March is a cause that fights for ending violence, giving women reproductive rights, civil rights, workers rights, LGBTQ+ rights, immigrant rights, and environmental justice.

As Rachel Shoop, a sophomore who attends Shorewood high school and participated in the march, said, “Sometimes it’s hard to see our own impacts until we come together on a large scale. And when we do, it shows every person in our country, especially our leaders, that we will fight for justice and equality.” The march was able to provide empowerment to women and remind them that they are not alone.

“It creates awareness, which leads to discussion, which helps lead to change. This helps combat ignorance and shed light on these issues so they can be rectified”, Rachel further articulates. She talks about wanting to create unification over social and political boundaries. The point of the movement is to recognize the differences that each person has and not to divide each other because of them but to celebrate everybody’s differences and come together as one collective group of people. Sometimes it can be hard to see how much progress is being done, and it can feel like nothing is changing. What this movement is all about, and what Rachel is saying, is that even though protesting might not fix the problems at hand, it brings awareness to them and begins the process of change, which is an important step.

As Tamika Mallory, the co-founder of the women’s march said, “We’re in a hell of a fight – probably, for most of us, the fight of our lives – but we are seeing victories. We are seeing progress”. Women need to feel hopeful. It is vital for people to not get bogged down by the injustices but to rise up from them instead.

“We can sit on the sidelines and complain all we want, but change will only come if we take action”, Erin Croom, a Junior at Garfield High School who attended the march, relayed. She continues by saying, “Too many feminist narratives are focused solely on the struggles of straight, white, cisgender women. We need to pay attention to how other social issues, like race and sexuality, intersect. Not every women faces the same set of disadvantages, and that needs to be acknowledged.”

Overall, the 120 marches that took place on January 20th this year, that continued on the statements that were made at the previous march, were able to inspire people. Obviously not everybody agrees with the messages that the marches are promoting, which is okay, but it provides healing and a fight for justice, for those who do believe in it. All humans deserve to have a voice. All humans deserve to have rights. All humans deserve a fair chance.

Sources:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/10/27/we-must-stand-up-womens-convention-energizes-new-wave-activists/809211001/

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/29/womens-march-tamika-mallory-feminism-2017

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/2018-womens-march_us_5a5d14e6e4b03c4189683949?slideshow=true#gallery/5883f18ee4b0e3a735698f94/46