Women unite to defy expectations of failure

A new women’s movement announced itself in a big way on Jan. 21, 2017, as millions of people around the world marched for equal rights and an end to current and future discrimination.

Yet by March 8 — International Women’s Day and “A Day Without A Woman” rally day — the contrarians and cynics were on their own warpaths.

By March 8, I’d been asked by skeptical radio hosts whether or not women would have the unity it requires to, say, dislodge antiwoman politicians.

I’d read long magazine pieces in the New York Times about the “fractious” women’s movement.

I’d even noted the defeatist attitudes of some liberal-minded women themselves. Writing in the Los Angeles Times, columnist Meghan Daum said “March 8 will mostly be a day without women who can afford to skip work,” ignoring that the history of American strikes has been the history of women (and men) who can least afford to skip anything.

Anyway, I’d gotten the point: Plenty of people are waiting for the current movement’s failure because everyone knows women can’t do anything right.

I decided to find out for myself whether these benighted creatures who constitute more than half of our population really were capable of motivating a movement, of articulating a message of unity.

My first move was to wear red, as the organizers of the International Women’s Strike had suggested.

Heading out to work in the morning, I noticed that few women in my neighborhood — a predominately Latino corridor — were doing the same. Then I boarded BART, joining a crush of urban professionals on our way to work. My car was a sea of red.

Obviously, the message about the day hadn’t gotten out to everyone in San Francisco.

So there were racial and class distinctions at work. Within the history of women’s movements, those distinctions have always been present, frustrating and challenging. As long as race and class bedevil us in the larger culture, they’ll be problems for women’s movements, too.

But the streets of my neighborhood were bereft of both women and men on Feb. 16 ’s “Day Without Immigrants.” Nearly every business shut its doors, at great expense to the people who live and work there. So this shortcoming seemed to be a failure of messaging rather than a failure of concern.

And if the rally that drew more than a thousand people to the steps of City Hall on March 8 was mostly a privileged group, so what?

“That just means enough people are pissed off,” Justina Ashley told me at the rally.

Ashley, a 33-year-old San Franciscan, attended the Jan. 21 Women’s March, which she described as “much larger and better-coordinated.” But she stressed that a smaller group of participants didn’t mean a movement already falling into disarray.

“It’s not easy to get people to take the day off of work, and there were a number of conflicting messages,” Ashley said. “Don’t buy anything or buy only from women’s businesses? Don’t go to work or just wear red? A lot of different messages, but the point is the level of civil engagement I’ve seen is new and doesn’t seem to be fading.”

Walking around the rally, I had to agree.

Most of the protesters looked relatively prosperous, but they came from all ages and ethnicities. The signs they held up looked creased and well-used, as if their makers had just pulled them out from under the bed where they’d been stashed after the last march.

The signs’ messages — “Another Day, Another 55-78 cents on the Dollar!” “Freeze out ICE!” “Get Him Out. I Have Kids.” “Get Up. Resist. Repeat.” — remained relevant.

Everyone was in high spirits. There was no evidence of classism or division when it came to the speakers. The audience cheered as much for Maria Trujillo, a janitor who spoke with a translator about sexual harassment on the job, as they did for Shannon Coulter, a marketing professional who co-founded a successful economic boycott of the Trump businesses. “Everyone’s got to get involved now,” said Susan Adams, a 65year-old San Franciscan. “I’m here because I’m concerned about the world we’re leaving my nieces and nephews. And from the look of the crowd — young, old, different ethnicities — lots of people are feeling that way, too.”

The rally ended on time and in peace.

I didn’t experience any of the fractiousness promised, or the disappointment so many naysayers insisted would be in store.

I wasn’t the only one. As I was walking away, two women told me to “get ready” for the next strike on May 1. “That will be a big one,” they promised.

They smiled brightly, oblivious to the idea that they weren’t capable of making it happen.

“A lot of different messages, but the point is the level of civil engagement I’ve seen is new and doesn’t seem to be fading.” Justina Ashley, 33, of S.F.