WASHINGTON – Nearly four years after millions of women flooded streets around the country – and world – in the first Women’s March, thousands gathered again on Saturday at Freedom Plaza for another protest of the presidency of Donald Trump.
Saturday’s event was one of many happening across the country, and the organization said the day’s protests were to “cap off Trump’s presidency just the way it started — with massive, women-led resistance.”
In D.C., the march began with a rally featuring women speakers like the Women’s March Executive Director Rachel O’Leary Carmona, who called out Congress for holding confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett.
Carmona emphasized the importance of the election and the power of the women’s vote in a time when it appears women’s rights are threatened.
“This country is on the wrong path,” Carmona said. “I’m here to tell you … (Trump) wants us to feel demoralized … But we are organized … and most of all we are motivated. His presidency began with women marching and it will end with women voting.”
In 2016, 39% of women with a college degree voted for Trump, according to the Pew Research Center. After Trump’s election, a record number of women ran for office, with a record-breaking 102 elected to Congress. That hasn’t stopped the Trump administration from working to strip away women’s rights, activists said.
Linda Marie-Gelsomina Zerilli, professor of political science and gender and sexuality studies at the University of Chicago, said that from abortion coverage to birth control prices to equal pay, Trump has slowly been unraveling Obama-era regulations that were meant to bring about more gender equality.
“In December of 2019, the Trump administration finalized a rule that would force health insurers to bill consumers separate for insurance premiums that cover abortion,” said Zerilli. “Then, one of the major achievements of the Affordable Care Act was that it gave women no out-of-pocket costs for birth control, and that has now been eroded by the Trump administration. And this is something I think people don’t really think about as much – the erosion of equal pay for women.”
Zerilli also said the Trump administration has undercut the work of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a federal agnecy that collects data on employee pay to ensure companies pay commensurate salaries for equal work regardless of gender.
“That’s a big thing because there are these persistent pay disparities that are experienced by working women and especially women of color compared with white men,” she said.
According to the Center for American Progress, Asian women make 90 cents to every dollar white men make while white women make 79 cents, Black women make 62 cents and Hispanic or Latinx women make 54 cents.
Some women feel that the actions taken against gender equality by the Trump administration – capped by the almost certain confirmation of Barrett – will create an even longer, negative effect on future generations.
Fatima Goss Graves, president of the National Women’s Law Center, told the protesters she has no doubt Barrett will “undermine” abortion rights, health care and democracy if she is confirmed to the Supreme Court.
Political science and gender and sexualities studies professor Suzanne Chod of North Central College said the concerns surrounding Barrett are twofold. The first is about the sect of Catholicism Barrett belongs to, although, Chod added, it’s not necessarily that her religion is a problem. Rather, it is how the teachings of that religion will affect Barrett’s rulings.
“There has been some concern about this smaller sect that she is a part of because of the subordinate role of women in this organization,” said Chod. “The subordinate role of women in this organization is something that women are trying to break out of and try to get the systems to let them out of.”
The second concern is based on Barrett’s judicial philosophy and previous rulings, Chod said.
“The way that she’s ruled previously or spoken about the judicial soundness of Roe (v. Wade) and the Affordable Care Act and of protections for the LGBTQ community, including maybe overturning Obergefell (v. Hodges) … I think that’s where the concern is,” said Chod.
Protesters marched from Freedom Plaza past the Capitol and Supreme Court and ended at the National Mall for a “text-a-thon,” in which participants sent messages to encourage people to vote on Nov. 3.