Rowe-Finkbeiner - Keep marching: how every woman can take action and change our world, one woman at a time

Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.

H ARRIET T UBMAN

Millions of women became part of a wave of powerful, inspiring voicesreverberating through Washington, DC, and across the country and globe at over six hundred sister marcheson January 21, 2017. Longtime activists Tamika Mallory, Carmen Perez, Linda Sarsour, and Bob Bland co-chaired the Womens March of 2017, encouraging and helping women across the nation and around the world mobilize like never before.

It was the largest outpouring of people on a single day in the history of our nation.

That was just the beginning. The Womens March marked a turning point in our nation in much the same way that past marches and movements for equity, equality, and justice have done. Each of these turning points ultimately not only left their marks in our history books but also helped shape the culture we live in, produced legislative action that advanced many of the freedoms that weve come to enjoy, and provided a foundation for the ground we stand on today.

What got people out their doors and onto the streets for the Womens March was what happened on Election Day in 2016.

In other words, in the face of hate, many white women didnt stand up for themselvesor for every woman in the nation. That being said, many women did stand up against the onslaught of hate. A full 94 percent of Black women voted against Trump, as did nearly 70 percent of Latina women.

Since the 2016 election, its clear that a lot more women are waking up to the fact that we cant take our rights for granted and that we cant afford to be a nation divided.

Its time to stand together, to keep marching together, to rise for and with one another.

In Keep Marching, my hope is to help you become more knowledgeable about the struggles and fights women in our nation face todayas well as how you can play a role in solving these challenges. The list of top priorities for the women of our nation is broad and diverse, just like we are as a country. So, in addition to covering issues like the wage gap and access to health care, Ive also included chapters on ending mass incarceration and supporting fair treatment of immigrant families. We have a lot of work to do. But we also have a lot of power to do that work.

Remember, when we stand together, we are 164,148,777 strong. Thats power. We contribute a massive amount to our nation, to our economy, to our communities, to our families, to

Women are a fierce and rising force in our nationand in our economy. We became half of the full-time labor force in our nation for the first time in the last decade.

Women play a role in every aspect of our countrys businesses; families; nonprofits; schools; churches; communities; city, county, state and federal governments; and American life. Women are rising as breadwinners, voters, and leaders, all while juggling an unprecedented number of roles at the same time.

The responsibility of building a movement together may be great, but the gains we can make together will be nothing short of revolutionary. Keep Marching is for every woman who is stepping into her power, who wonders how the heck were going to fix our nations problems, who wants to dig deeper, or who wants to help create positive change.

This book is for all of us who show up for marches, in movements, and in our communities; who give back; and who want answers and tactics for navigating the struggles in our daily lives. Its also for all of us who have worked our butts off for democracy, ringing doorbells on cul-de-sacs in New Jersey, attending town hall meetings in Idaho, making calls in Mississippi. And its also for all of us who havent done any of that, who maybe have never been even remotely political, but who now find ourselves awake at night, staring at the ceiling, worrying about the safety of our daughters and about our childrens future, and who have realized that we must be our own heroes on their behalf.

And this book is being written in no small part in thanks to every woman leader, especially women of color, who has rightfully told me, Go get your people. This is me, getting my people. This is my call to every imperfect, glorious woman in America to keep marching.

Together we can change the fact that many of the policies that most directly impact our daily lives and economy are all too often swept under the rug and ignored. Together, we can inspire more women to participate in our democracy so that the laws of our land truly reflect the contributions and needs of all those who live here.

As the co-founder and executive director of MomsRising, a nonprofit organization with over a million diverse and powerful women in every state of our country, Ive seen the power of women and moms taking action. With that in mind, Ive written Keep Marching as a road map. This is a blueprint for how we build and wield power as women. This is an atlas showing how to advocate for policies that improve not only our own lives but also the lives of future generations. This is a diagram of how we can win.