But as the movement evolves, differing priorities and tactics have emerged among the women, nearly all of them unpaid and spread across the country. Now, on the eve of the anniversary, a rift is emerging between two groups: Women\u2019s March Inc., which organized the march on NY and spent much of the year creating more social justice protests, and another organization of activists who planned sister marches last year and believe that winning elections, particularly in red states, should be the\u00a0\u201cWe can march and take to the streets and yell about all the stuff we want to change, but unless we\u2019re getting people elected to office who are going to make those changes, we\u2019re not really doing anything,\u201d said Lindsey Kanaly, who organized the women\u2019s march in Oklahoma City and is now a March On board member. \u201cWe can march and take to the streets and yell about all the stuff we want to change, but unless we\u2019re getting people elected to office who are going to make those changes, we\u2019re not really doing anything,\u201d said Lindsey Kanaly, who organized the women\u2019s march in Oklahoma City and is now a March On board member.<\/p>\n

The organizers of the march in Washington made a point of picking leaders from communities who have historically been ignored by mainstream feminist groups. Of the four national co chairwomen of the Washington march, three were minorities. But the group\u2019s leadership had very little geographic diversity. Nearly all of the board members of Women\u2019s March Inc. are from New York City. \u201cWhat they are doing is great, but it\u2019s difficult to tap into here,\u201d said Kelly Smith, a librarian from Berea, Ky., who organized buses from Kentucky to Washington for the march last year. A general strike could not work in Kentucky, a state where many women depend on hourly wages and do not have union protections, she said.<\/p>\n

March On\u2019s founders say the group grew out of weekly conference calls held by the organizers of sister marches as they swapped tips on applying for permits, finding sponsors and obtaining event insurance. After the marches, they met for the first time at a retreat and decided to form a new organization that would focus on giving organizers tools to help win elections.<\/p>\n

In October, March On began an initiative called March on the Polls, which urges local activists to use the anniversary to help register and educate voters in advance of the midterm elections.<\/p>\n

Mindful of the optics of dividing the movement, March On founders describe the organization as a complement, not a competitor, to Women\u2019s March Inc. Both groups have refrained from criticizing the other in public. But behind the scenes, there has been some frustration. The organizers of the march in Washington made a point of picking leaders from communities who have historically been ignored by mainstream feminist groups. Of the four national co chairwomen of the Washington march, three were minorities.<\/p>\n

But the group\u2019s leadership had very little geographic diversity. Nearly all of the board members of Women\u2019s March Inc. are from New York City. So far, the split between Women\u2019s March and March On has not dampened the enthusiasm for marking the anniversary. Many activists in the field said they were unaware of the division. Those who are say they seek resources from both organizations: Women\u2019s March Inc. provides a unifying vision and a national spotlight, while March On gives on-the-ground support, such as legal advice on applying for nonprofit status.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If govt can\u2019t secure women\u2019s safety, we can secure it ourselves\u2019, Police files 110 cases Wasim Khalid Srinagar: With 45 days having passed since the first hair-chopping case was reported in Kashmir, the police are still clueless about who the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":56,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[46,66,75],"tags":[41,48,49],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.newlightmedia.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.newlightmedia.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.newlightmedia.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.newlightmedia.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.newlightmedia.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news.newlightmedia.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.newlightmedia.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.newlightmedia.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.newlightmedia.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.newlightmedia.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}