Women marching again after an amazing year of change
Incredibly, it’s been nearly a full year since tens of thousands of women and girls — and many supportive men, too — packed the Civic Center and Market Street in their famous pink knit hats to protest the previous day’s inauguration of President Trump.
There was plenty of female pride and a dash of humor, too, like the signs reading “Make America Think Again” and “Ikea Has a Better Cabinet.” But there was also fear. Fear of what Trump would do in office and fear of what an America that had just elected a man who boasted of grabbing women’s private parts had become.
Well, get ready, Mr. President, and the roughly 38 per-
cent of the country that still supports him. Women are getting ready to march again. San Francisco’s march, one of more than 300 around the world scheduled for Jan. 20, will begin at 11:30 a.m. at Civic Center Plaza with a rally featuring an all-female lineup of speakers. That will be followed by a 2 p.m. march down Market Street to the Embarcadero.
There’s still massive fear about the Trump administration, but there also seems to be more optimism that the resistance is having an impact.
Who would have imagined a year ago that powerful men, including Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey, would be taken down by the #MeToo movement? That the onetime boozy, lighthearted Golden Globes would become a showcase for the burgeoning Time’s Up campaign to end sexual harassment and assault in the workplace? That Oprah Winfrey would deliver such a knockout speech people would be talking her up as a future presidential candidate?
“When we first started, there was this hopelessness — like what do we do now?” said Sophia Andary, 35, a senior analyst at Levi Strauss & Co. and one of 15 main organizers of this year’s Women’s March in San Francisco. “It’s a matter of putting that aside, getting to work and effecting change.”
Last year, organizers of the San Francisco Women’s March on Jan. 21 expected 40,000 participants — and an estimated 100,000 actually turned up. This year, they’re expecting 60,000 marchers, so there’s no telling how many will appear.
“We woke up on the 22nd last year and said, ‘Phew, that’s over,’ ” said Martha Shaughnessy, 38, a public relations executive and another organizer of the march. “Then we woke up on the 23rd and realized, ‘Oh no, this has only just begun.’ ”
This year’s march will center on the importance of women turning out to vote, particularly in the November midterm elections, when Democrats hope to reclaim the House, the Senate or both.
Organizers this year are also trying hard to include a diverse group of women speakers who represent an array of groups threatened by the Trump administration including transgender people, Muslims, immigrants living in the country without documentation, and homeless and other impoverished people.
Jennifer Friedenbach, director of the Coalition on Homelessness, will take the stage with Jacquelynn Evans, who used to live on the city’s streets. Friedenbach said the Trump administration’s cuts to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development have hit households led by poor single mothers particularly hard.
“Poverty hits women so hard, and that’s before the tax breaks to corporations,” she said.
Friedenbach spent the weekend repairing a 12-foottall dinosaur costume her son is going to wear to the march. It’s intended to represent Trump emerging straight from the Mesozoic Era. (“It’s really so I can see him from the stage,” Friedenbach said with a laugh.)
The march organizers had hoped to feature the six women who make up the female majority on the Board of Supervisors for the first time since 1996. But since they’re applying for nonprofit status, they’re avoiding any hint of political favoritism — in the local arena anyway, since their national politics are pretty obvious — and are only including the supervisors who aren’t running for anything.
That leaves out London Breed and Jane Kim, who are running in June’s election to replace the late Mayor Ed Lee, and Malia Cohen, who is running for the state Board of Equalization.
Supervisor Hillary Ronen, who isn’t running for anything, does have a speaking role and said that as of Monday, she’s inclined to spend her time on stage addressing the need for Congress to begin impeachment proceedings against Trump.
“Each day and each tweet shows us this man is incredibly dangerous for this country and for the world,” Ronen said. “I knew things were going to be bad, but this level of dysfunction, immaturity and dangerous rhetoric is more than I had anticipated.”
By the way, in another one of those who-would-have-predicted-this-last-year phenomenons, June’s mayoral election could feature just one man as a serious contender.
Assemblyman David Chiu and Supervisor Mark Farrell have both bowed out, and City Attorney Dennis Herrera seems to be on the fence. If he doesn’t run, former State Sen. Mark Leno would be the only male with a household name in the race.
“You noticed?” he said with a laugh as he filed papers to run at the Department of Elections in the basement of City Hall Monday morning.
His main contenders so far are Breed, Kim and former Supervisor Angela Alioto. Gotta say, I loved Breed’s quote upon announcing her candidacy: “May the best woman win.” Considering many are calling 2018 the “Year of the Woman” and are encouraging women to run for office — San Francisco has had only one woman mayor, Dianne Feinstein nearly 40 years ago — being a man in the race could be tricky.
“I would say, with full respect, this race should be about policy, not personality,” said Leno, who would be the city’s first openly gay mayor, but he said he’s intentionally not hyping that fact too much.
“I’ve got my own personal profile I could be touting, but that’s not the sole reason to elect me,” he said. “I want to be elected because the voters of San Francisco agree that I have the wherewithal and the ideas and the experience to be able to create the change we need.”
One thing’s certain: It’s going to be an interesting five months.