On January 21, the day after Donald Trump’s inauguration, over five million women and their supporters worldwide—including more than 400,000 who came to D.C. for the Women’s March on Washington—joined forces and marched, carried signs, sang songs, and spoke out against the racism, fraud, conflicts of interest, homophobia, transphobia, white supremacy, misogyny, and ignorance that are coursing through the new president’s agenda.
The Sierra Club was represented at more than 60 marches across the country, with hundreds of Sierrans joining the D.C. march. Club staff and volunteers carried signs reading Women’s Rights = Human Rights, Sierra Club for Gender Equity, Resist Trump’s Hate, and We Support Immigrants’ Rights.
In an article that he wrote for The Huffington Post , Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune quoted Barack Obama:
“Our Constitution is a remarkable, beautiful gift. But it’s really just a piece of parchment. It has no power on its own. We, the people, give it power — with our participation, and the choices we make, whether or not we stand up for our freedoms.”
Brune then writes, “Donald Trump’s ability to wield power will depend on us and, as President Obama put it, how we choose to participate.” He asks, “Will we stand up to a president who denies the reality of climate change and openly attacks women, people of color, immigrants, Muslims, people with disabilities, LGBTQ people, workers, and so many more? Or will we grimace and look the other way until it’s too late?”
With an estimated 616 marches in 70 countries, it appears that people are not planning to “look the other way” and are prepared to take responsibility as global citizens, international watchdogs, and if necessary, human barriers to prevent Trump from carrying out his detestable agenda.
In an article for Ms. Magazine’s blog, A. Tianna Scozzaro, director of the Sierra Club’s Gender, Equity and Environment Program, shares her reasons for marching. “I am marching as an environmentalist, seeing that climate change and natural disasters hit women first and worst.” She cites the example of post-Katrina New Orleans, revealing that 80 percent of people left behind in the Lower Ninth Ward were women.
The Sierra Club’s march slogan, Women’s Rights = Human Rights, hits home with women across the planet who recognize that all people should be granted the right to clean air, clean water, and a stable, safe climate. For many, marching on January 21 represented a call for the gender justice and equality that are prerequisites for climate justice to flourish.
For many others, marching was an opportunity to feel a sense of community and support in an uncertain, fearful time. The Women’s March provided a chance to confirm the solidarity, harmony, and strength that will be needed in the potentially harrowing days to come. For one mother and daughter, Noelle and Melanie Shahin from San Jose, California, marching on Washington was a chance to show unity with immigrants and concern for the environment. They were also present in memory of their mother and grandmother, who was sent to a Japanese-American internment camp during World War II. "I look at the faces of my children—they are of Japanese and Iraqi descent,” Noelle said. “How can I not march?"
One outcome of the day’s protests was the image of a wide range of progressive issues, beliefs, and motivations coming together in support of one underlying commonality: women’s rights. In her speech to protesters in D.C., NRDC president Rhea Suh emphasized that “today is just the beginning of what needs to be a sustained collective effort to counter the Trump administration’s destructive agenda and to advance economic, social, and environmental justice.”
Feminist icon Gloria Steinem said of the diverse crowds gathering as one, in front of her and around the world: “This is the upside of the downside.”
Aerial images and on-the-ground footage reveals defiant and festive crowds, energized by the feeling of power that unity provides. Colorful signs read, I’m With Her, with arrows radiating outward in all directions. Others read, Love America? Save the EPA!, Make America Think Again, My Body My Choice, Women for Climate Justice, and much more.
On many signs and t-shirts the mantra “nasty woman” was incorporated as women proudly reclaimed the term after Donald Trump used it to describe Hillary Clinton near the end of the final presidential debate. In her recitation of 19-year-old Nina Donovan’s poem, Ashley Judd fired up a sea of pink hats as she said, “I am a nasty woman, a loud vulgar, proud woman. I’m not nasty like the combo of Trump and Pence being served up to me in my voting booth. I’m nasty like the battles my grandmothers fought to get me into that voting booth.”
In the days to come, the Sierra Club and its partners in the People’s Climate Movement are organizing hundreds of actions that will take place around the country in the first 100 days of Trump’s presidency. Plans are in motion to rally in Washington on April 29 for what is envisioned as the biggest U.S. climate march ever. As Brune writes, “We are joining to build a movement that is bigger than any single issue — a movement united behind principles of equity, justice, and human rights. If we want to defeat not just Trump but also his allies and would-be successors, this is what we need to do: Take a stand together, march together, and win together.”
The consensus of vast numbers of people around the globe seems to be this: As a result of this election, we will never be the same. A challenge has been presented to us: a president that neither hears us nor sees us. This reality is bringing us together in unimaginable ways. We are marching and we are not going home. We are standing together and, at last, making change.
