Women across the nation and around the world will be taking to the streets on March 8, International Women’s Day. Born out of the women’s labor movements, the day is recognized as a focal point in the women’s rights movement.
“The women in Mexico are celebrating. They have a female president. They have reproductive rights,” said Emiliana Guereca, founder and president of the Women’s March Foundation.
Conversely, in the United States, “we march in protest,” Guereca pointed out.
The Women’s March Foundation – the Los Angeles branch of the national Women’s March organization – is holding an “International Women’s Day Protest & Rally” in downtown LA on Saturday, March 8.
The Women’s March started in 2017 as a response to when President Donald Trump was first elected into office. This will be the LA foundation’s first march since Trump took office for his second term, since the local January protest was canceled due to the wildfires.
Initially motivated by the need to show strength in numbers and highlight the need for reproductive freedom and equal pay for equal work, at this year’s local march, the list of issues has grown larger.
Trump’s numerous executive orders are threatening to turn back hard-fought progress, including the elimination of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs, which helped open the doors for women, people of color and other marginalized populations to have a seat at the table.
“Women are powerful. We’ve always been powerful. We’ve just been invisible,” said Guereca. “There is not one single right that has been given to women, we’ve had to fight for every single right we have.”
Demonstrators will gather at 10 a.m. in Pershing Square and march 1.8 miles to a rally at City Hall. Speakers will include attorney Gloria Allred, civil rights activist Dolores Huerta, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, LA County Supervisor Hilda Solis and others.
“This year’s Women’s March [in Los Angeles] is going to be very important for women to once again come out to show that we, as women, are not going to be quiet, we’re not going to just let all of this keep happening without marching, without protesting, and eventually we’ll be taking action at the ballot box,” Huerta told the San Fernando Valley Sun/el Sol.
The legendary labor leader, now 94 years old, continues her activism. After leaving the United Farm Workers union, which she co-founded with Cesar Chavez, she formed her own social justice foundation. She received the highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, from former President Barack Obama for her grassroots organizing on behalf of the underserved. The parity she has stood for is no longer supported under the Trump administration.
“Trump’s actions have just been devastating to women [and] we know that women are being affected directly in many different ways,” said Huerta. Including, she noted, thousands of federal job layoffs, which have left many women unable to pay their bills and support their families.
“He’s also fired many high-level women that [were] in the military and other branches of government,” she added. And although Trump has appointed some women to cabinet positions, those individuals don’t challenge his decisions and “go along with Trump’s male chauvinism.”
Trump’s vehement insistence on eliminating DEI policies will negatively affect women, effectively putting the brakes on decades of progress in educational and career opportunities for women of all ages, ethnicities and backgrounds, said Huerta.
“Unfortunately, his party is applauding him for this, as we saw during his speech [Tuesday night to Congress],” she said.
Women are also being impacted by Trump’s orders for mass deportations, leading to family separations, financial strain and widespread fear.
“Immigrant women have to think twice about going to work if they are undocumented, they have to think about where their kids are going to school. They have to think about possibly themselves being deported, their husbands being deported. And all of this is stressful on women,” said Guereca, adding that the foundation has partnered with other organizations to hold “know your rights” information sessions.
“And even if it’s a man who has been deported, often he’s leaving a family behind and their wives are going to have to struggle to make up the income gap,” said Huerta. “We’ve already seen that happen here in the Central Valley, where we have had farm workers that have been deported. And there’s fear being instilled into the community, making people feel afraid to even go shopping or figure out if they should risk leaving their home to go to work.”
Revoking reproductive rights, overturning Roe v. Wade, cutting Medicare and Medicaid and the proposed Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act are other examples of recent attacks on women, said Guereca.
The SAVE Act would require all residents to prove their citizenship when registering to vote or updating their voter registration information, by presenting documentation – a passport or birth certificate – in person. Among a slew of concerns about the act, when almost 69 million married women who have taken on their spouse’s last name do not have a birth certificate that matches their legal name, this act could cause massive gender-biased voter suppression.
“Now we know that he [Trump] means business. We know that his cruelty has no bounds,” said Guereca.
“We are a month and a half into the second Trump administration, and I think I speak for a lot of women when I say, this is exhausting,” said Guereca. “But realistically, this is a time for us to recommit to this fight.”
Huerta urges women to not allow themselves to feel defeated and to remain proactive by continuing to march and protest, getting involved in advocacy efforts and even running for political office.
“We can see what’s happening in the Congress right now, where none of the Republicans are challenging what Trump is doing,” said Huerta. “At this point in time, we need women’s leadership more than ever.”
But in whatever capacity we choose to be involved, “we have to show our presence,” she said.
“I want people to understand their physical presence is so important – I think it really feeds our energy,” said Huerta. “But if you can’t be there in person, definitely be there virtually.
“We’re at such a turning point in our democracy,” she continued, noting that “things are going to get a lot worse” unless we act – in unity.
“The Women’s March helps us celebrate our unity, and, at the same time, it’s a healing process to know that we’re not alone, that there are other women out there that [feel] as we do,” explained Huerta. “With our presence, we are showing that we’re not accepting these terrible actions that are happening in our country right now.”
“The fight for women’s rights is not over,” said Guereca. “We’ve got to continue standing up for equality, for gender equality.”
Editor Diana Martinez contributed to this article.
