“Respect my existence or expect my resistance.”
“I can do anything you can do bleeding.”
“A woman’s place is in the resistance.”
Even, “If I wanted the government in my womb, I’d sleep with a senator.”
On January 21, 2017, in response to the election of the 45th President of the United States, which many Americans felt was a sharp blow to the progress the country had seen in recent years, the nation responded. Or more accurately, its women responded—in throngs numbering in the millions. According to the highest estimates, about 5.2 million Americans stepped out and marched across the nation’s cities to demand the new administration clearly understand that women’s rights are human’s rights.
One year later, and the women’s rights movement has only grown in size and energy. It has incorporated issues such as racial equality, LGBTQ+ rights, immigration, healthcare, reproductive rights, the natural environment, and workers’ rights alongside women’s rights. (Further proof, if we needed any, of women’s ability to prove that sharing the scene doesn’t take away from our movement, it only creates a greater and more powerful massive push for change.)
This past Saturday, January 20th, 2018 I attended Seattle’s Women’s March 2.0 with a group of my own gal pals. We woke up early and were fueled by equal parts caffeine and feminism in the middle of Cal Anderson Park in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. Sporting our signs and “She Will Win” tees (purchased from a group of UW students seeking to educate communities on the inequalities many girls encounter within sports—for more information or to pick up one of your own click here!) we were ready to march.
The synergy of similar marches happening across the country could be tasted in the air as Jenny Durkan, Seattle’s newly elected (female and openly LGBT) mayor tweeted, “This was the year of action – we marched, we organized, we ran, and we won.”
The march took off around 11:45 A.M. and proceeded along the pre-planned route: down East Pine Street, turning on Fourth Avenue and finally ending at the Seattle Center, a distance just over two miles.
Incredible doesn’t even begin to describe the smiles radiating off the faces of mothers, marching hand-in-hand with their daughters—the torch being passed off from one generation to the next.
Husbands and significant others standing alongside their loved ones in a show of support and pride for their fight.
Grandmothers (around the country!) continuing to provide their support as the backbone of this centuries-long fight for women’s equality.
Even the city’s dogs joined in to support:
In a march that incorporated so many complex and important issues, the resulting courage and hope of the nation’s women (and the men and boys marching alongside them) shined through the despair. If I took away any single lesson from this experience, it is that 2018 is the year of the woman: a year of action and change.
Get ready world—we’re not finished speaking. We’re about to paint the town pink – or whatever color we decide best highlights our strength, dignity, value and sisterhood best.