OPINION: Women’s Convention in Detroit the right next step for the Women’s March movement
But that's a strength, not a weakness, of this inaugural gathering that brought between 4,000 and 5,000 activists, mostly women, to
To call the convention's agenda robust is an understatement; as many as a dozen concurrent sessions scheduled over the gathering's three days offered attendees opportunities to learn practical tactics for organizing community activists, reaching out to new voters, run or launch campaigns themselves, delve deeply into the viewpoints of women of color, understand the proposed immigration ban or the importance of universal health care -- a dizzying array of information and strategy.
If you think about it, it's the only way a women's convention could be.
United by gender, women's identities diverge sharply -- white, black, Asian, Indian, LGBT, immigrant, abled or disabled, mothers, childless or childfree -- to be a woman is to live an inherently intersectional life, a term used by activists to describe the way individual people live in layered systems of oppression. "The fullness of my humanity," as one speaker described it.
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And among attendees, optimism seemed high. Rallied by the Women's March, held last January after the inauguration of President
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Yet all the purposeful optimism of the
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If you think about it, this is what we ask of women, all the time. Surveys of American men and women show that while the number of hours women work outside the home has trebled since the 1960s, the number of hours women work inside the home has remained steady. Women are expected to hold disparate jobs and identities -- wife, mother, employee, daughter spouse -- to be all things, to all who depend on us.
The convention didn't offer unanimity, but clarity. Goals for women to support, or support for goals women might set themselves. And tools to achieve all of it. For anyone who wondered what the furor of the Women's March might become, this is the answer.
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