The day after Donald Trump's inauguration as president in January 2017, millions of women took to the streets in Washington, D.C., and cities around the world to express their collective anger at his election and to fight back against his presidency. We showed solidarity with women who do this.
I was in the midst of a huge crowd of celebrities and elected civic leaders, and I was proud to be among them. It was unforgettable and empowering.
But as Trump's second inauguration approaches, the call to march again is landing like a lead balloon for many of us.
Several women leaders from left-wing organizations and nonprofit women's organizations that I have contacted since the election have no desire to participate in the next Women's March, scheduled for January 18, 2025, and Participants from other women's groups also said they did not know. Planned to participate. All asked to remain anonymous for fear of alienating funders and colleagues, and their responses ranged from assertive “That's what it is,” to more thoughtful comments that the march was “performative.”
Overall, the consensus among the dozen or so leaders I spoke to was that it was a “bad idea.” One of the people who actually spoke out publicly was Jotaka Eedi. She organized some of America's most influential black women to support Harris' candidacy. victory with black women.
In her personal position, Posted in X She said she had no plans to march and felt the funds needed for the march would be better spent supporting organizations run by women of color.
The question is, why? The challenges facing women during President Trump's second term are wide-ranging. The nominations of Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) as Attorney General and Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense are both deeply concerning.
Gates is accused Sex trafficking of underage girls and Hegseth of rape. Trump's inner circle, and of course Trump himself, have both expressed regressive views of women. Elon Musk, who plays a central role in the Trump world, said this. he believes contraception is bad for women.
For feminist leaders, this is a stark, if not surprising, picture of a presidential “manosphere” empowered by both houses of Congress and their belief that they have a mandate. And amazingly, it comes at a time when the future of access to birth control, Plan B, and abortion rights are all at stake.
There appear to be three central questions as to why some women leaders, who have long been at the forefront of the modern women's movement, are now turning their backs on March 2025. is.
First, it's easy to argue that the 2017 march didn't go well. With millions of people taking to the streets, the event sparked a short-term surge in civic activism that was not sustained, especially during this year's election cycle.
Indeed, in the 2018 and 2022 elections; Record number of women announce candidacy Many people running for public office were inspired by anger at Trump, but that number has since declined significantly. fewer women This time, he ran for Congress more on the Democratic side than in past years. A kind of “resistance fatigue” may have begun. Many women did not feel able to remain active, especially given the significant economic challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic and rising inequality.
Another reason is that the rift between the leadership and strategy of the First March has not been resolved at all. The 2017 event, which began with a Facebook call from activist Bob Brand, was complicated and divisive from the start, despite a huge show of solidarity on the day of the march.
right of center women felt excludedAnd even conservative women who opposed Trump felt the march organizers' agenda was too left-wing for them.
That problem seems to be particularly problematic right now. The platform is Women’s March Foundation website contains 18 'values and principles' covering a wide range of issues. It declares that “LGBTQIA rights are human rights,” strongly supports abortion rights, and calls for “an end to abortion.” [of] direct and indirect aggression caused by war economies and the concentration of power in the hands of wealthy elites who use political, social, and economic systems to protect and extend their power. ” This kind of widespread vitriol seems tone-deaf in the current climate.
Finally, in this case, the march does not advance the actual efforts needed to organize and transform electoral politics in the long term. Under the best of circumstances, it would be difficult to unite millions of women around 18 different issues set out by a small group of left-wing leaders, but in the 2024 election, a large proportion of women voters, especially white women, will The reality has become clear that this is not the case. They are forced into that kind of politics. Not only do they not think of themselves as being in the Democratic Party; they voted for trump.
As a result, leaders and marching candidates now have time to develop new methods of political organizing, more comprehensive advocacy, strategy, and reflection that will be essential if Democrats are to regain the majority in future elections. They recognize that they may be able to better meet their goals by taking the time to think through the process.
This is not to say that marches have not played an important role in the struggle for political progress throughout history. The first American Women's March, led by suffragists Alice Paul and Lucy Burns in 1913 on the eve of Woodrow Wilson's inauguration, was highly controversial and revolutionary.
This accelerated seven years of activism that ultimately led to the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which gave white women the right to vote. Marches, of course, were a fundamental tool of the 1960s civil rights movement, anti-war movement, and more.
There will no doubt be another moment when women will be forced to march en masse for their rights. And the 2025 march is very likely to involve large numbers of people willing to descend on Washington.
But given the silence of so many women leaders today, they would rather think and plan a lifetime of work and advocacy necessary to achieve the more perfect union that so many women aspire to. See, it might be a good time to stop and regroup.
Lauren Reeder is the co-founder and CEO of All In Together, a national nonprofit, nonpartisan women's civic leadership organization.
