Nevertheless, she persisted: Mobilization after the Women’s March

The Resistance, 2018

Women & Language, 2021

Protest marches are an important means of political expression. We investigated protesters' motives for participating in the original Women's March on Washington. Two research questions guided this study. First, to what degree did concerns about gender injustices motivate marchers to participate? Second, to what degree did marchers' motives align with the goals established by march organizers? Seven-hundred eighty-seven participants responded to three open-ended questions: (1) Why did you choose to participate in the march, (2) What did you hope to accomplish, and (3) What events during the 2016 presidential election caused you the greatest concern? Responses were coded thematically. Findings indicated that gender injustices were not the sole source of motivation. Most respondents were motivated to march for a variety of reasons, hoped the march would function as a show of solidarity and resistance, and indicated that the misogynistic rhetoric of the 2016 presidential campaign was a deep concern. Finally, the comparison of respondents' motives and organizers' stated goals indicated a shared sense of purpose for the march.

This article is composed of photographs and remembrances: my own and those of several students and friends who participated in the Women’s Marches in New York and Washington, DC, on January 21, 2017. The images and text raise questions brought to life by the marches. They address the efficacy of mass marches and similar forms of protest in an era driven by polarization of both social media and mainstream news media. The article poses such questions as, what was the nature of the Women’s March, and how did it differ from previous demonstrations? What did it achieve? Can solidarity be sustained in an environment of heightened and ongoing divisiveness?

Leadership

The Women's March is arguably the most important counter-narrative to Trump's post-truth regime, but does it also present a leadership alternative to his populist and authoritarian style? And is this alternative necessarily better than currently dominant social formations? In this paper, we argue that the Women's March is partially configured by similar forces of affective circulation as those governing pro-Trump narratives, but that it is different and better in one important respect. Its narratives are driven by both collaboration and contestation, meaning its circulation is both centripetal and centrifugal. We substantiate this claim through a close reading of the narration of the Women's March-from its inception until its first anniversary. Here, we focus particularly on the development from a moment of resistance to a political movement, arguing that this process offers a prototype for conceptualizing a new form of 'rebel' or social movement leadership. Hence, the Women's March not only offers a different and better alternative to the leadership of Trump, but also offers an opportunity for promoting and refining leadership theory in the post-heroic vein.

Women's Studies International Forum, 2020

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Journal of Interdisciplinary Feminist Thought, 2019

This study of the U.S. Women’s March on Washington engages a feminist cultural studies lens to examine my own participant observations and multiple lived accounts published by women in open blogs, op-ed pieces, and online articles to produce a critical analysis of collective resistance and action. Photos from the march offer a gritty core sample of American cultural identities in terms of race, class, gender, sexuality, ability, ethnicity and religion with marchers standing shoulder to shoulder in coalition against misogyny, heterosexism, white supremacy, xenophobia, and the very real threat to recognizing women’s rights as human rights. Drawing on the strength of collective resistance and coalition building across difference, the march created a space for galvanizing women to engage in political change making. This change is evidenced through a variety of political actions taken after the march including: record numbers of women running for and winning political nomination, dramatic swells in activist trainings for organizations like Planned Parenthood, increases in voter registration drives linked to #PowerToThePolls, and the proliferation of conversations about sexual harassment connected to the #MeToo movement.

2020

2017

Mobilization: An International Quarterly, 1999

Using data compiled from a variety of different sources, we seek to answer questions about the emergence and outcomes of women's collective action in the United States between 1956 and 1979. In particular, we examine hypotheses derived from political opportunity and resource mobilization theories about the emergence of women's protest. We also examine the consequence of women's collective action on congressional hearings and House and Senate roll call votes on women's issues. We find support for arguments about the effects of resources on the emergence of protest. We also find mixed support for arguments about the effects of political opportunity on the emergence of protest. Finally, we find little support for arguments about the effects of women's collective action on congressional hearings and House and Senate roll call votes on women's issues.

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000