WASHINGTON — Eight years after its historic first march, the Women’s March returns to the nation’s capital on Saturday, just before the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump.
Renamed and reorganized, the rally has a new name: the popular march — as a way to broaden support, especially during a moment of reflection on progressive organizing following Trump’s decisive victory in November. The Republican is sworn in on Monday.
Women outraged by Trump’s 2016 presidential victory flocked to Washington in 2017 and organized large rallies in cities across the country, establishing the basis of a grassroots movement known as the Women’s March. The Washington rally alone attracted more than 500,000 demonstrators, and millions more participated in local marches across the country, marking one of the largest single-day protests in state history -United.
This year’s march is expected to be about a tenth the size of the first and takes place in a restricted moment of reflection as many progressive voters navigate feelings of exhaustion, disappointment and despair after the vice’s defeat -President Kamala Harris. The relative calm contrasted sharply with the fury of the inaugural rally as massive crowds shouted demands into megaphones and marched in pink hats in response to Trump’s first election victory.
“The reality is that it’s just hard to capture lightning in a bottle,” said Tamika Middleton, executive director of the Women’s March. “It was a really special moment. In 2017, we hadn’t seen a Trump presidency and the kind of vitriol that that represented.”
The movement fractured after the hugely successful day of protests amid accusations that it was not diverse enough. This year’s name change to Popular March is the result of an overhaul intended to broaden the group’s appeal. Saturday’s protest will promote themes related to feminism, racial justice, antimilitarization and other issues and will culminate with discussions hosted by various social justice organizations.
The People’s March is unusual in the “broad range of issues brought together under one umbrella,” said Jo Reger, a sociology professor who studies social movements at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan. Women’s suffrage marches, for example, focused on a specific goal: the right to vote.
For a large-scale social justice movement such as the march, conflicting visions are impossible to avoid and there is “immense pressure” on organizers to meet everyone’s needs, Reger said. But she also said some discord isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
“Oftentimes it brings change and new perspectives, especially those from underrepresented voices,” Reger said.
Middleton, of the Women’s March, said a massive protest like the one in 2017 was not the goal of Saturday’s event. Rather, it’s about focusing attention on a broader set of issues – women’s and reproductive rights, LGBTQ rights, immigration, climate and democracy – rather than focusing it more narrowly around Trump.
“We don’t view the march as the end game,” Middleton said. “How do we get these people who are running into organizations and into their political homes so that they can continue to fight in their communities for the long term?”
