The Women’s March is held once a year in various cities throughout the United States. The first march was held in 2017, making this year the 4th annual Women’s March. The first Women’s March began on the first full day of Donald Trump being President, as a rejection of him, but also as a source of unification for women everywhere. This year was the first time I had been in attendance, and at first I wasn’t sure what to expect beyond knowing that there were obviously going to be women marching, with signs, and championing for equal rights for women. However, I found something much more than that.
The meeting before the Saturday of the march, we got together to make signs to take with us. As women’s empowerment music played throughout the meeting room, we all worked to make signs and discussed our lives. The signs turned out great, and we had so much fun making them! Drawing inspiration from each other (and the all-knowing internet), we made signs that we all loved and were excited to take with us to the city.
HC author Olivia Turner making her sign, via Her Campus OK State Facebook Page
We left Stillwater around 8:30 am the morning of the march since OKC is only about an hour from Stillwater, and that gave us 30 minutes of leeway time in case anything were to happen. Once in the city, we went to the beautiful Scissortail Park, where there was a large group of women already gathered and waiting for the speakers to begin. As we went around admiring and taking pictures of everyone’s signs, and of course letting other people do the same with ours, we enjoyed free coffee and donuts from the Mike Bloomberg for President crew while we chatted with each other and other people at the march.
The speakers were, in a word, amazing. The diversity that was displayed on stage, as well as the messages, and often the raw emotions that the speakers chose to make us privy to were awe-inspiring. The women who spoke, one girl being as young as 11 years old, displayed a strength that I can only hope to display after many more years of life, and their viewpoints and solutions to issues we still face to this day were so interesting to hear about. One thing that also surprised me, were the number of men that were there simply to support the march and the women who chose to participate, as well as participate themselves. Most were there either with their partners or their families, and some even went so far as to make their own signs! The overwhelming support from everyone in attendance just made the day so much better.
photo by Laney Lynch
The march officially ended with an actual march around scissortail park, however, we chose not to participate as some of us had to get back to Stillwater in time for work and other things. Even without the actual march around the park, we felt fulfilled from our experiences we had there.
The main thing that I have learned from this march, not only from the speakers, but also from those in attendance, is that when we get together we make a resounding voice stronger than what we could ever do alone. Also, you don’t have to belong to a certain subset of people in order to support them and champion for their equal rights. From all the speakers, I maybe only looked like/had a similar background to two of them, however, I supported everything that everyone spoke about throughout the day. We should champion for the rights of all people, not just for the ones we personally relate to.
Her Camp OK State at the Women’s March, photo by Laney Lynch
Happy Women’s March ladies, we’ll see you next year ;)