The Women's March Rebranded and Reorganized. Now They're Ready for 2025

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42. What about a convention to identify a limited set of issues to work on together,

make realistic plans for making the changes happen including interim goals and timelines, and actually assign tasks & exhange contact info among those who will work together?

I feel this could get just as much publicity and be just as energizing as a march, just as much or more fun and social in terms of forming working connections for going forward, and perhaps be more likely to yield particular, concrete successes.

Nothing against marches and protests, especially around causes that most people aren't even aware of; but at this point I think most people have at least some awareness of a lot of the issues that might be raised by a Women's March, and I think a lot of us feel that what we need is a realistic plan of action. We need to copy ALEC, and write draft model legislation, interview candidates about our issues prior to elections and get those questions into public debates, send delegations to representatives' offices, etc. etc.

It's fine to protest against things; it's better to also offer something specific and concrete to replace it with.

You can’t counter institutional power with good intentions, or charisma alone…. You have to build your own institutional power.

– Mike Gecan, recorded by Studs Terkel, Hope Dies Last: keeping the Faith in Troubled Times, p. 238 (The New Press, 2003).

Imho, it would be best to say up front, we recognize that all issues are interrelated, but however much we care about them, for the sake of getting things done and not breaking into factions, we're limiting this particular effort to women and gender-related issues, rather than also trying to fix other kinds of inequities, urgent as those may be.

I also think we should focus on the goals that are most do-able; e.g., I think most Americans of all parties at least secretly agree that the government should not be interfering so much with adults' decisions re- abortions and that gay marriage and in vitro fertilization should remain available. If on the other hand, we allow ourselves to get pulled into taking positions on too many different issues, or on the most controversial onces, such as gender-affirming surgery for minors or late-term abortions, I'm afraid we'll accomplish nothing other than exacerbating existing divisions.