One Year After the Women's March: Cecile Richards, Amber Tamblyn, and Women's March Organizers on What to Focus on in 2018
January 21 marks the one-year anniversary of the Women's March, the largest single-day protest in U.S. history. All this week, Glamour will be spotlighting the stories, people, and issues that framed the March, as well as where we go from here.
From the beginning, the Women's March was intersectional by design—spotlighting a wide range of issues, from reproductive rights and racial equality to immigration reform and LGBTQ rights. In the year that followed the march, these conversations have only gotten louder, providing a backbone in some cases for organizations like Time's Up, which aims to end harassment and inequality in industries like Hollywood and beyond, sparked by the momentous #MeToo movement.
Now the march has been officially immortalized in a book: Together We Rise: Behind the Scenes at the Protest Heard Around the World, the definitive oral and visual history of the Women's March, featuring writing from Ashley Judd, America Ferrera, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, and plenty of others—on sale starting today. It's a testament to not only where we were a year ago (me: freezing my butt off on the streets of D.C. toting my protest sign but invigorated beyond belief), but also the tremendous impact that day had on the entire planet.
"I feel like for so many women who didn’t get to march, they were looking to see: Could this really make a difference? And the short answer is it did and it has," said Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood, at a party for the book's launch held at women's social and professional club The Wing. (Richards and Planned Parenthood were integral in endorsing the Women's March early on.) "It’s been our honor to not only stand up for Planned Parenthood patients, but to stand up for Dreamers, for immigrants, for mothers who deserve to send their kids to school without being afraid of gun violence, and for folks who need clean drinking water no matter if they live in New York City or Flint, Michigan," she said. "These are the fights that are all of our fights, and the Women’s March has done more to bring this country together than anything I’ve ever seen."
Amber Tamblyn, one of the founding members of Time's Up, added her thoughts in the wake of a stirring Golden Globes ceremony where many wore black in solidarity, though some men in attendance were rightfully criticized for not speaking up.
"Part of what we’re doing with Times Up is inspired and informed by what the Women’s March has done," Tamblyn said. "This truly is a movement for us, not only about the redistribution of power, but it’s about the underrepresentation of women. So it’s not just about sexual assault, it’s not just about harassment in the workplace. It’s about getting more women in positions of power; it’s about being able to lend ourselves to our own voices. Of being able to speak for ourselves and have our own narratives and control our own bodies, which is everything the Women’s March has represented."
“[The Golden Globes] was not about shaming men," Tamblyn told us. "This is about being critical of men, of masculinity, of male narratives. Of the absence of women in power. And the only way to show them that there is an absence of us is by talking about the over-presence of them. That’s what the Golden Globes was about—we are here too, and we’re not asking you to be a part of the conversation anymore; we’re just going to take that over and be the conversation. And if you care at all about women’s stories, then you should absolutely be supporting us.”
We asked Richards, Tamblyn, and some of the Women's March organizers what women and men should be focusing their efforts on in 2018:
Cecile Richards: “This is a historic moment, and it’s sometimes hard, when you’re living through history being made, to recognize that. All I would encourage any woman to do now is just do one thing more that you thought you ever could—maybe something that makes you uncomfortable. Because it’s a time in which I think we all have to take a leap of faith and know there’s going to be an enormous community of women out there to support you. To me, that’s what I find. You never regret the things you did; you regret the things you didn’t.”
Amber Tamblyn: “No one knows where to begin until they begin. Oftentimes the first steps are scary, invigorating, and exciting. On Twitter when Time's Up was announced, a woman tagged me and said, 'What about sexual harassment of teenage girls in schools and girls in college? Where’s the protection for them?' And I said, 'That’s a really great question. Why don’t you head that up? We’ll support you.' It’s important for people to create the change they wish to see in the world, no matter how small. And I know that’s easier said than done, but I think now more than ever, women are really feeling their voices and getting their feet planted in the movement.”
Breanne Butler, Women's March director of states & global: “As an ally, my advice would be, ask, 'What do you need? Do you need help filling out a police report? Do you need someone to just come over and keep you company?' Whatever it is, that support is so important right now. Just making yourself available, instead of the response being like, 'Really? What were you drinking? What were you wearing?' None of that; as an ally, just be there and support. And always believe women.”
Paola Mendoza, Women's March artistic director: “I always ask [people]: What is the thing that you love? There’s so much to be angry about. There’s so much injustice in the world; there’s so much hate. But if we’re organizing out of this place of anger and frustration, those emotions are all negative, and they all deplete you. They might fuel you in the moment at the beginning, but that feeling will only last you so long. [It] will actually make you tired and not allow you to take on the long fight that needs to happen in order to see the outcome that we want. So I ask this question of love because when you know what you love, then that also gives you the energy and the ability to organize infinitely—because love is infinite. But it also gives you guidance. The thing I love is immigrants. I’m an immigrant myself—but in particular the undocumented community holds a very special place in my heart. So I am organizing every day for the undocumented community.”
Sarah Sophie Flicker, Women's March organizer: “There’s been a lot of great pathways into telling [our stories]. And I also think it’s important to know that you don’t have to tell your story. You have to listen to your intuition and do what feels right to you. I don’t know that I have great advice for women because I feel like it’s being exemplified in so many beautiful and empowering ways every day. What I would say to men is first listen. And then: It’s OK to acknowledge [that] there’s interactions we’ve had that we may not feel comfortable with and we want to explore and talk about. That's really how change happens. None of us has to be perfect as far as our past interactions or knowledge of this topic. I think this is a really new conversation, and it’s OK to be nuanced and complicated and a little bit messy. Because inevitably it will be.”
Together We Rise: Behind the Scenes at the Protest Heard Around the World is available for purchase now.
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