Women's March on Washington, Indianapolis sister rally collection

Collection — Folder: 1

Identifier: L705

Staff Only

Dates

2017

Historical Note

The Women's March on Washington was a grassroots event advocating gender equality, which took place January 21, 2017, the day after President Donald Trump's inauguration. The protest grew to support human rights and other issues under fire from the new administration, including women's rights, immigration reform, healthcare reform, LGBTQ rights, racial equality, religious freedom, workers rights, and the environment. The event was set to begin with a rally featuring nationally recognized advocates, artists, entertainers, entrepreneurs, and others at 10:00am (EST) in Washington, D.C. The march began at 1:15pm (Women's March on Washington, "Event Details," 2017). Despite the difficulties in estimating crowd sizes, the D.C. homeland security director, Christopher Geldart, claimed march attendance easily reached more than 500,000 (Hartocollis and Alcindor, 2017).The event was roughly three times the size of the audience at President Trump's inauguration, according to crowd scientists (Wallace and Parplapiano, 2017).

Sister marches and rallies occurred across the United States, as well as in other countries, totalling 673 marches, according to march organizers. An estimated 4,956,422 marchers attended these events around the world. In Indiana, marches and rallies took place in Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, South Bend, Greenwood, Lafayette, Paoli, and Saint Mary-of-the-Woods (Women's March on Washington, "Sister Marches," 2017). Approximately 5,000 people attended the women's rights rally in Indianapolis, which was held on the west side of the Indiana Statehouse at 11:00am (EST) on January 21, 2017. The event lasted nearly two hours and speakers included activists, community organizers, state politicians, performers, and others. Tables for participating organizations such as the National Organization for Women, Center for Inquiry, and Planned Parenthood faced the Statehouse at the back of Bicentennial Plaza.

Many marchers wore "pussyhats"--pink knitted beanies with cat ears--at women's marches across the United States as a symbol of solidarity. The Pussyhat Project launched Thanksgiving weekend, 2016 with the goal of "creating a sea of pink hats representing not only those at the march, but also the makers of these pink hats" (Pussyhat Project, 2017).The project creators provided knitting and crochet pattern for the hats, which anyone could use to make pussyhats, and the website allowed hatmakers to register their hat and track where the hats originated. Inspiration for the hats originated with "Trump's 2005 comments in Access Hollywood audio leaked in October 2016, in which he bragged about grabbing women by their genitals" (Garfield, 2017). The term "Nasy Woman" also featured prominently in signage, on apparel, and in speeches at the marches, which became a rallying cry after Trump called Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, a "nasty woman" under his breath at the third and final presidential debate in 2016 (Gray, 2016).

Sources:

Items in the collection.

Chira, Susan, and Yamiche Alcindor. "Defiant Voices Flood U.S. Cities as WOmen Rally for Rights." New York Times, January 21, 2017. Accessed February 2, 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/21/us/women-march-protest-president-trump.html.

Garfield, Leanna. "Thousands of Women Will Wear Pink 'Pussy Hats" the Day After Trump's Inauguration." Business Insider, January 18, 2017. Accessed February 2, 2017. http://www.businessinsider.com/pussy-hats-womens-march-washington-trump-inauguration-2017-1.

Gray, Emma. "How 'Nasty Woman' Became a Viral Call for Solidarity." Huffington Post, October 20, 2016. Updated October 21, 2016. Accessed February 2, 2017. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/nasty-woman-became-a-call-of-solidarity-for-women-voters_us_5808f6a8e4b02444efa20c92.

Hartocollis, Anemona, and Yamiche Alcindor. "Women's March Highlights as Huge Crowds Protest Trump: 'We're Not Going Away.'" New York Times, January 21, 2017. Accessed February 2, 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/21/us/womens-march.html?_r=0.

Pussyhat Project. Home page. Accessed February 2, 2017. https://www.pussyhatproject.com.

Wallace, Tim, and Alicia Parlapiano. "Crowd Scientists Say Women's March in Washington Had 3 Times as Many People as Trump's Inauguration." New York Times. Updated January 22, 2017. Accessed February 2, 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/01/22/us/politics/womens-march-trump-crowd-estimates.html.

Women's March on Washington. "Event Details." Accessed February 2, 2017. https://www.womensmarch.com/event-details.

Women's March on Washington. "Sister Marches." Accessed February 2, 2017. https://www.womensmarch.com/sisters.