Women's March on Washington: Women Uniting in a Sisterhood of Inclusion

Jan 17, 2017

It started out as a spontaneous reaction to the election results and has morphed into a rally cry for women who have felt castrated individually and now have a place to connect with others.

Many are inspired by Trump's campaign rhetoric that they feel will undermine issues relevant to women; policies of inclusion, reproductive rights, voting rights, free press, affordable health care, racial and gender equality, equal pay and higher minimum wage are just some of the issues that have galvanized women. The climate of hate, and bullying that is visible in our political discourse, the supreme court's move toward conservatism, the exclusion of groups, all of these are issues that are particularly noisome to women. The march organizers published Unity Principals on January 12th as a response of talk of exclusion related to race. White women were feeling uncomfortable with talk of 'privileged white women' not owning that they were an entitled group in relation to women of color and the LGBT community. The organizers did what more people would like government to do, they listened, adjusted and included. However, they have also noted that the march is not an 'anti-Trump' march. It is a pro-women march. A quote on the website states: Women's rights are human rights and human rights are women's rights.

Desiree Aragon, who identifies herself as a woman of Spanish heritage, had not heard of the march, but expressed no surprise it was happening. "You never know what's going to inspire people," She said. "Who knew the election results would be a lightening rod for women to gather and raise our voice." Sabrina K Garba, a woman of color and CEO of 'Glass Ladder', feels the march demonstrates that women can "come together over issues that are important to us. For a long time society has seen women as not having opinions or being politically active. This shows we have the ability to make change that will impact policy. If we don't unite we will continue to be seen as second class citizens."