Introduction
“Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.”
—HARRIET TUBMAN
Millions of women became part of a wave of powerful, inspiring voices—reverberating through Washington, DC, and across the country and globe at over six hundred sister marches—on January 21, 2017. Longtime activists Tamika Mallory, Carmen Perez, Linda Sarsour, and Bob Bland co-chaired the Women’s March1 of 2017, encouraging and helping women across the nation and around the world mobilize like never before.
It was the largest outpouring of people on a single day in the history of our nation.2
That was just the beginning. The Women’s March marked a turning point in our nation in much the same way that past marches and movements for equity, equality, and justice have done. Each of these turning points ultimately not only left their marks in our history books but also helped shape the culture we live in, produced legislative action that advanced many of the freedoms that we’ve come to enjoy, and provided a foundation for the ground we stand on today.
What got people out their doors and onto the streets for the Women’s March was what happened on Election Day in 2016. That day, the issues that many women care deeply about were either ignored or flat-out undermined by a shocking amount of support for—or at least tolerance of—sexist, racist, and xenophobic policies and behavior. That support included 53 percent of white women who voted for Donald Trump, a man with a well-documented history of racism, misogyny, and xenophobia.3
In other words, in the face of hate, many white women didn’t stand up for themselves—or for every woman in the nation. That being said, many women did stand up against the onslaught of hate. A full 94 percent of Black women voted against Trump, as did nearly 70 percent of Latina women.
Since the 2016 election, it’s clear that a lot more women are waking up to the fact that we can’t take our rights for granted and that we can’t afford to be a nation divided.
It’s time to stand together, to keep marching together, to rise for and with one another.
Keep Marching
In Keep Marching, my hope is to help you become more knowledgeable about the struggles and fights women in our nation face today—as well as how you can play a role in solving these challenges. The list of top priorities for the women of our nation is broad and diverse, just like we are as a country. So, in addition to covering issues like the wage gap and access to health care, I’ve also included chapters on ending mass incarceration and supporting fair treatment of immigrant families. We have a lot of work to do. But we also have a lot of power to do that work.
Remember, when we stand together, we are 164,148,777 strong. That’s power. We contribute a massive amount to our nation, to our economy, to our communities, to our families, to the future—in both unpaid and paid ways. According to the U.S. Census data as of 2015: 62 percent of us women are white non-Hispanic, 17 percent Hispanic, 13 percent Black, 5 percent Asian, 2 percent two or more races, 1 percent American Indian/Alaska Native, and 0.2 percent Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander.4
Women are a fierce and rising force in our nation—and in our economy. We became half of the full-time labor force in our nation for the first time in the last decade.5 We make the vast majority of consumer purchasing decisions in our consumer-fueled economy.6 We push $11 trillion of value into our world economies through our unpaid work.7 We own 11.3 million American businesses, which employ over 9 million people and generate over $1.6 trillion in revenue. We earn the majority of college and graduate degrees.8 Single women are more than twice as likely to buy a home as single men (17 vs. 7 percent).9
Women play a role in every aspect of our country’s businesses; families; nonprofits; schools; churches; communities; city, county, state and federal governments; and American life. Women are rising as breadwinners, voters, and leaders, all while juggling an unprecedented number of roles at the same time.
The responsibility of building a movement together may be great, but the gains we can make together will be nothing short of revolutionary. Keep Marching is for every woman who is stepping into her power, who wonders how the heck we’re going to fix our nation’s problems, who wants to dig deeper, or who wants to help create positive change.
This book is for all of us who show up for marches, in movements, and in our communities; who give back; and who want answers and tactics for navigating the struggles in our daily lives. It’s also for all of us who have worked our butts off for democracy, ringing doorbells on cul-de-sacs in New Jersey, attending town hall meetings in Idaho, making calls in Mississippi. And it’s also for all of us who haven’t done any of that, who maybe have never been even remotely political, but who now find ourselves awake at night, staring at the ceiling, worrying about the safety of our daughters and about our children’s future, and who have realized that we must be our own heroes on their behalf.
And this book is being written in no small part in thanks to every woman leader, especially women of color, who has rightfully told me, “Go get your people.” This is me, getting my people. This is my call to every imperfect, glorious woman in America to keep marching.
Together we can change the fact that many of the policies that most directly impact our daily lives and economy are all too often swept under the rug and ignored. Together, we can inspire more women to participate in our democracy so that the laws of our land truly reflect the contributions and needs of all those who live here.
As the co-founder and executive director of MomsRising, a nonprofit organization with over a million diverse and powerful women in every state of our country, I’ve seen the power of women and moms taking action. With that in mind, I’ve written Keep Marching as a road map. This is a blueprint for how we build and wield power as women. This is an atlas showing how to advocate for policies that improve not only our own lives but also the lives of future generations. This is a diagram of how we can win.
That being said, I hope you write in the margins of this book, tear the pages out that you don’t agree with, write in your own new ideas, be in conversation with the concepts, add to what I’ve written, and work together in order to build a country that truly does work for us.
Keep Marching highlights and celebrates the contributions that women make every day to our country, as well as the barriers we unfortunately continue to face generation after generation. By providing the facts of what’s happening to women and families nationwide, as well as providing solutions, this book is focused on informing and giving you the power to implement change—in your own life, in the lives of women you know, and in the lives of women you don’t. Combining statistics, stories, and actionable advice, this book is intended to be a practical handbook for those of us—and our allies—who want to do something to help advance women’s rights and fix our nation, but who don’t know what or how.
In this book, you’ll find not only illuminating facts but also practical advice. The topics in this book reflect the priorities of the over a million women I’ve encountered through MomsRising, as well as the Unity Principles at the 2017 Women’s March. Many of the action plans that appear at the end of each chapter are based on a document that we at MomsRising created.10 This document includes tactics that we have used over the past decade to enact and encourage change. These tactics are accessible to anyone and can be tremendously effective. Know one thing: You are needed.
This Is Our Time to Rise
In order to truly change the status quo, we must not advocate for just one policy to change—but many. Not just one female leader—but thousands. It’s up to us to stand up for our sisters, our communities, and our nation.
If you ever feel overwhelmed by the hurdles ahead of us, remember this inspiring chant from the Women’s March:
When women are under attack, what do you do?
Stand up, fight back!
When Black lives are under attack, what do you do?
Stand up, fight back!
When Muslims are under attack, what do you do?
Stand up, fight back!
When immigrants are under attack, what do you do?
Stand up, fight back!
When trans people are under attack, what do you do?
Stand up, fight back!
When any of us are under attack, what do you do?
Stand up, fight back!
It’s our time to make history/herstory/ourstory. I invite every woman in America to keep marching forward. I may not be able to predict the future but I do know one thing for sure. As women, we will not be bullied. As women, we will not be silenced.
As women, we will rise.