With the second Women’s March around the corner, many are reflecting on the past year’s events and how they contributed to societal awareness around women’s issues.
From Wall Street’s “Fearless Girl” statue to Hollywood’s #MeToo movement, we take a look back at the many occasions that came after the historic Women’s March of 2017.
1/21/17 – The Women’s March 2017 – The movement crushed expectations as 2.6 million attendees across the world stood strong at the Women’s March in 2017.
1/23/17 – Mexico City Policy or ‘Global Gag Rule’ – Only a couple days after the Women's March, President Trump signed an executive order that reinstated the Mexico City policy, commonly known as the "Global Gag Rule." This policy prohibits organizations from using U.S. aid to fund abortions abroad.
2/19/2017 – Susan Fowler takes down Uber CEO – Former Uber employee, Susan Fowler, wrote a blog post detailing daily harassment and sexist culture she experienced while working at the tech company. The blog post led to an internal investigation by former attorney general Eric Holder. The extensive investigation resulted in the firing of 20 staffers, and contributed to founder Travis Kalanick's resignation as CEO.
3/7/2017 – The Fearless Girl – The statue, installed on the eve of International Women’s Day, stares down Wall Street’s “Charging Bull” and was initially only supposed to stay for a week. However, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio extended its run for an entire year.
5/9/2017 – Australian Senator Larissa Waters – Waters made political history in Australia when she became the first politician to breastfeed on the Parliament senate floor. She tweeted: “So proud that my daughter Alia is the first baby to be breastfed in the federal Parliament! We need more #women & parents in Parli.”
6/2/2017 – Wonder Woman – The film, starring Gal Gadot and directed by Patty Jenkins, soared to the top of the box office with its $100.5 million debut weekend – which made it by far the biggest blockbuster ever directed by a woman.
10/5/17 – Harvey Weinstein – The New York Times published a story revealing nearly 30 years of sexual harassment by Oscar-winning movie producer Harvey Weinstein. It eventually led to Weinstein’s dismissal from his company, The Weinstein Co., and marked a wave of allegations surrounding similarly powerful men.
The Weinstein Effect
According to the New York Times, at least 51 men have been fired, resigned or experienced a fallout because of sexual harassment allegations. The ‘Weinstein Effect’ included men like Kevin Spacey and Louis C.K., and broke out of Hollywood as well.
10/15/17 – #MeToo – Although the term was originated 10 years ago by Tarana Burke, it became popularized by actress Alyssa Milano who tweeted it and asked followers to share their stories of sexual harassment/assault using the phrase.
11/7/17 – Danica Roem & Andrea Jenkins – Danica Roem became the first openly transgender woman lawmaker in the state of Virginia after defeating a 13-term incumbent for a seat in the state’s legislature. Andrea Jenkins made history as the first openly transgender African-American elected into public office of a major U.S. city when she won a seat on the Minneapolis City Council.
11/7/17 – Women in national politics – Virginia voters elected 11 new women to the House of Delegates, which brought the grand total to 27 women working in the state’s legislature. This included the state’s first Asian American female lawmaker, Kathy Tran, and two Latinas, Elizabeth Guzman and Hala Ayala.
12/6/2017 – Time magazine’s The Silence Breakers – Time magazine’s 2017 Person of the Year cover went to what they called “The Silence Breakers” – a group of women who triggered the #MeToo national movement by publicly recounting their own experiences with sexual harassment.
1/7/2018 – #TimesUp & The Golden Globes – Stars wore all black accompanied with Time’s Up pins on The Golden Globe’s red carpet to show their solidarity with Hollywood’s sexual harassment initiative. The campaign was launched in early 2018 and addresses the “systematic inequality and injustice in the workplace that have kept underrepresented groups from reaching their full potential”, according to its website.
1/7/2018 – Oprah’s Speech – Winfrey delivered a powerful speech about sexual harassment and the Time’s Up movement when she received the Cecil B. DeMille Award during the Golden Globes.
1/20-1/21/2018 – The Women’s March 2018 – This year’s march is rallied around the slogan “Power to the Polls”, which aims at registering more women to vote and elect more women into public office.
