I am collecting data about the #WhyIMarch hashtag to explore the variety of issues that people all over the world are protested against in the women’s march and will continue to protest in the future.
On January 21st, millions of people all over the world came together to march for women’s rights. The rallies were largely aimed at President Donald Trump due to his political statements deemed anti-women. The march did not only stop with one million people rioting in Washington D.C.. Data shows that over five million people worldwide marched for the cause. The women’s march in D.C. was shown to be more crowded than the Inauguration of President Trump.
In the Google Drive data that I have collected thus far, there are 300 tweets. Most of the tweets with the location setting turned on are coming from the US, from states like Florida, California, Texas, Arizona, New York, Massachusetts, etc. I was amazed to see tweets from Brazil, Indonesia, and Australia tweeting about women’s rights in America, using accompanying hashtags like #StayInvolved, #BeBold, #Resist. The wide range of tweets from countries all over the world show that this is a large issue not only for individuals living in the U.S., but for individuals across the globe. Most of the tweets are protesting women’s rights with other accompanying hashtags lie #StandUpToTrump, #WeThePeople, #NoBanNoWall. Another interesting point about this hashtag is that a lot of women celebrities are using the hashtag to raise awareness of women’s rights. For example, Jennifer Lawrence tweeted during the Women’s March to “fight for equality, fight for women to have their bodies”.
What I observed about this hashtag is similar to the tweets I expected to see. I expected a lot of tweets lashing out at President Trump and using accompanying hashtags lie #resist, #womensrights, and #StandwithPP. I noticed that there is one tweet that has been retweeted quite often, which was originally written by @AMERICA_PARTII, saying, “The liberal mentality that angers me the most is their ? #maga #draintheswamp #tcot #whyimarch #liblogic…”. A lot of people also retweeted a tweet written by @SOMEXICAN saying, “For those of you who don’t understand #WhyIMarch”, and there is a video attached with interviews of why people marched in the women’s march on January 21st.
With Trump’s view on women and our rights, the Women’s March movement was amazing to see especially with so many people coming out from all around the world to support us. This data is very interesting because it shows how this is not just an issue American women are trying to tackle but it is one women and men around the world are trying to fight. Like many of the topics, Trump has made women’s right a controversial topic. I believe your data will be interesting to follow in the next couple months because there is so much going on with this issue and many other issues that people will be marching for. I also think this data is interesting because it is sharing personal stories and reasons why people chose to march in January. Moving forward, I think it would be interesting to look to if this is an issue young people are actively trying to fight more than older people or if there it is equal.