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The moment I heard about the Women’s March in Washington D.C. on January 21, I knew I would go. I support all the state marches, and could have joined the march in Denver. But I felt I needed to go to our capitol. I was called to stand with other women – to express the importance of valuing women. My mission is to do my part to create a world where men and women – and masculine and feminine styles – are equally valued. I was not called to protest or to express outrage. (That seems a bit futile in light of the ability of the new President to hear criticism or concerns.)
Recently much has been written about divisions, particularly racial , within the march itself. The New York Times published a piece about the divisions. I simply am not giving power to that kind of thinking. I know that black women, Hispanic and Latino women, Muslim women, Asian women, lesbian women, and white women have different issues – different levels of privilege. We have differences. But our common tie is that we are women.
We can fight among ourselves. I have studied and written about how women (in general) handle conflict, particularly with other women. It is not my favorite feminine attribute! We can kill our collective power by focusing on differences. We can undermine and sabotage women whose experience is different. Or we can focus on what we share.
We can take a stand for: a world that values women, where violence against women is unacceptable, where women receive equal pay for equal work, where workplaces create family-friendly policies that work for young families, where women have free reproductive choices, where GLBTQ women are included, where feminine as well as masculine styles of working and leading are valued and leveraged, etc., etc., etc. Or we can lose this opportunity to stand in solidarity for the value of women – all women.
I choose to stand for women in solidarity for a world that works for more of us humans. Where do you stand? Where will you be (in body or spirit) on January 21?
