Chicago Women's March
Women’s March, Organizer, Activist, Board Member; Nov 2016-Sept 2018
In the week after the 2016 election, I was part of a core group of women who started organizing a Women’s March in Chicago, in the same spirit as the global marches planned for 1/21/17. Our individual reasons for organizing were varied, but we all believed that our basic rights were under attack and our most vulnerable citizens would need protection and assistance. For that reason, we decided that the best way to voice our outrage and show our might was to gather in the Chicago streets en masse.
We started organically with a Facebook group, to voice our dissent and proclaim that “women’s rights are human rights”--that group grew to 10K within the first week. Our goal at Women’s March Chicago (WMC) was bringing together women and their allies in support of critical issues affecting women and girls including: equal rights; equal pay; reproductive justice; LGBTQ+ rights; immigrant rights; racial justice; affordable health care; voting rights; freedom from violence; access for persons with disabilities; mass incarceration; violence-free communities; climate change; gun violence prevention; and much more.
(Jan 19, 2017). Women and children gathered at Greenhouse Loft, making signs for the coming weekend’s Chicago Women’s March on behalf of gender equality, human rights, and democracy. I spoke briefly at the event to give logistical info about the march.
We soon moved our organizational efforts to Slack and started delegating and establishing teams, timelines and task lists. Once a core group of organizers was established, we began holding volunteer meetings, asking professional organizers for advice, meeting with the city to establish a permit, and creating partnerships & coalitions such as SEIU and the Lawyers Guild.
I organized and spoke at volunteer meetings and marshal trainings (we trained over 350 marshals with SEIU). As a core organizer I was interviewed by the Chicago Tribune, early in the process of planning the March. Because I’ve written about Chicago’s Polish community, I also spoke to the Polish Daily News, emphasizing the Trump administration’s hateful rhetoric towards marginalized people, anti-immigrant stance, and the civil rights issues the administration represented.
I also planned wrote and strategized website content, internal communications and marketing materials (newsletters, FAQ sheets, press releases, emails to volunteers, fundraising notes). I worked and spoke at volunteer recruiting events.
Our work paid off: On January 21, 2017, 250K people (600K+ globally) came together in a peaceful march on Chicago’s streets. At that time, we had 43K in our Facebook group, 350 marshals, 150 additional volunteers, zero violence, access for 1,000 disabled persons (one of the most inclusive events ever held in Chicago), and not one blade of grass was damaged.
Post-March, when we were trying to figure out how to mobilize our efforts and activate our huge numbers of attendees and Facebook group supporters, I joined the WMC board, and remained a board member until I moved to Los Angeles in fall of 2018. Through a series of collaborative board meetings and meetings facilitated by a nonprofit organizational expert, I helped to formulate an intersectional structure/mission of the new (501(c)3) organization.
Since that time, the Chicago Marches have given individuals a space to make their voices heard, connect with like-minded people and inspire marchers to become activists in their own communities. Marches have continued in January 2018, October 2018 and January 2020. https://www.womensmarchchicago.org/
My husband and our musician/birder pal Scott Judd at marshal training in Chicago, January 2017.
My group on the day of the march, with our names and lawyer’s numbers markered on our arms in case we ended up being arrested.