Women marched, now what? How Canadian organizers plan to maintain the movement
On Saturday millions of women gathered in cities and on Antarctic expedition ships and online forums to join in a day of action pushing for gender equality.
But can a march become a movement?
In Canada, organizers say more than 112,000 people took to the streets Saturday to chant and make noise about women’s issues that matter to Canadians – the wage gap, missing and murdered women, Islamophobia. To many, the march felt like the start of something bigger, but it’s not clear where it might go.
What steps will organizers take to convert that burst of energy into sustained efforts? What needs to be done to make sure it doesn’t go the way of Occupy Wall Street, a protest against social and economic inequality, that lost momentum?
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Penelope Chester Starr is one of the national co-ordinators of the Canadian Women’s March. She says that since November, organizers have had their heads down, focused on orchestrating a meaningful day on Jan. 21. But she assures that it’s only the beginning.
“We’re putting our heads together to figure out our next steps,” she told Yahoo Canada News in barely a whisper, after losing her voice at the march. “We’re all really energized by what just happened. We realized that through our efforts and collective abilities we could impact and affect change.”
While she admits that those involved in planning the events are “still catching our breaths”, organizers have already crafted a “call to action” letter to all five of the federal party leaders, asking them to make women’s issues a priority in their agenda.
Ronald Stagg, a history professor at Ryerson, thinks the Women’s March has potential to turn into a movement if Trump continues to make outrageous statements about women, or if more is revealed about inappropriate conduct.
“Usually there has to be a continuing aggravation to keep these things going,” he said. “If he manages to be careful about what he says, it’ll be hard to sustain this.”
Stagg, whose teaching interests include social protest, predicts there will be sporadic demonstrations against Trump and his administration, but that the Women’s March will fold their actions into other protests.
“You’ve got to have a sense of outrage to keep a movement going, that this is something unacceptable and it’s continuing and we have to stop it,” he said.
Chester Starr says the Canadian Women’s March will focus on issues that directly affect Canadian women. Since the network spawned chapters in every Canadian province, they’ve connected with women who have a foothold in their communities. (Organizers from Nanaimo, B.C., to St. John’s have met for weekly conference calls since the network was formed in November and will continue to do so.) Their intention now is to leverage these local organizers and work together as a network of support and action.
She admits that the marches came about as a result of the presidential election, which she calls a “jumpstart” that inspired thousands to stop being complacent. But going forward, Women’s March Canada will focus on issues that pertain to Canadians, with the potential to turn into a non-profit.
“For us, it’s not about Trump and what he’s going to do,” she said. “It’s about actively promoting the issues and looking for solutions both on the national and local level. We represent half the population so there’s hardly an issue that doesn’t affect women.”
