On Saturday an estimated 1 to 4 million women marched globally for gender equality in the face of a new hegemonic world leader who has openly showed disdain for women in his statements. Yesterday one of Trump's first acts as president was to re-instate out-dated abortion laws which put women's lives at risk both in the U.S. and globally and that undermine women's agency and autonomy over their own bodies. This is no surprise coming from someone who is now synonymous with the phrase "grab her by the pussy".
Staring in the face of uncertain political and economic exclusion, the organizers and participants of the women's march are now facing criticism from both sides of the political spectrum. Before the global marches were even over, articles proclaiming that if the women's marchers did define a clear agenda that it would falter in the same way that the occupy movement had https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/19/womens-march-washington-occupy-protest. By Monday even Canada's (least) favorite female political pundit felt she needed to weigh in. Yes, Margaret Wente happily proclaimed, that there is no solidarity in the women's movement and that American women at least are as divided as ever. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/womens-solidarity-is-a-mirage/article33704854/ Margret Wente's positions are so predictable that it would probably be more cost-effective for the Globe and Mail to replace her with a robot.
On the other side of the political spectrum I found many comments on social media outlets lamenting the heavy presence of white women at these protests, questioning whether these same women would be at the next Black Lives Matter protests and even questioning the audacity of women to participate in an event when gender and racial equality require daily resistance.
I went to the women's march in Ottawa on Saturday and I was delighted to see my facebook feed full of pictures of other strong, empowered women who had done the same around the world. I don't feel that either of these critiques adequately capture the reality of the women who went to these marches and I'm going to tell you why.
This was not my first women's march. I've also marched alongside women in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on International Women's Day fighting for gender equal businesses and public offices by 2030, and with women in Kasese in rural Western Uganda demanding an end to child marriage as part of a peace expo. I think it's also important to note that I've been to a Black Live's Matter protest and that I've eagerly participated in indigenous solidarity events.
Marching is also not my only act of resistance. In 2007 I made a wish to keep Canada pro-choice in the face of another wish to end abortion in Canada as part of the Great Canadian Wishlist in which the CBC invited Canadians to make a wish for Canada's 140th Birthday and had people vote for their favorite wish. I've also published a policy review outlining gaps in Canada's gender policy in Fragile and Conflict Affected States. I've also had the opportunity to support the engagement of white women and women of colour through my work and to be honest, gender equality and women's rights are my primary focus, so I feel even more strongly for the women who organize within the movement who are facing harsh critique.
More importantly almost all of the women who I knew at the march have been involved in similar ways. Friends I saw included employees from the NDP with long protest histories, colleagues from local and international Non-Governmental Organizations, friends who I met at the Coady Institute's skills for social change program and University professors. These are not women who went home after the march to return to being passive housewives, these are women who already work for gender and racial equality everyday.
In response to the need to have a "well-defined and set agenda" without which the march and the movement will become meaningless in the eyes of some analysts, I couldn't disagree more. Any third or fourth wave feminist should be able to tell you that gender discrimination and inequality impacts women differently across race, class, sexuality and (dis)ability lines. That's why at the march you saw a divergence of signs ranging from questions of sexual assault and access to re-productive rights to race and political freedom. In order to remain meaningful to a whopping 53% of the World's population the movement needs to capture a large spectrum of women's needs, including from different country contexts. It will be far more effective to have women continue to work on issues that are most urgent for them and to collaborate together to bring attention to those causes that are most important to them. This will also capture some of the concerns related to representation of Women of Colour within the movement.
For those women who engaged for the first time this weekend, what a wonderful inclusive environment to march in for the first time. Now's the time to start thinking about how to continue to engage with equality in a way that interests and is sustainable for you. It is up to the more experienced and committed activists in the movement to introduce and entrench the importance of intersectionality and the participation of women of colour within the movement in order to present a representative and collaborative voice for women's issues in North America and around the World.
