The March Continues…

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’s rights. 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. had a much higher attendance than the Inauguration of President Trump. By searching this hashtag, I hope to compile a large set of data from people all over the world fighting for their rights using twitter as a platform.

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 so far in distance shows 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…” which are connected with different pictures. 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.

By reading articles about #WhyIMarch and Women’s March within the past week, I was very pleasantly reassured to find that the women’s march movement did not stop after January 21^st. Lynn Adams, Regional Captain of the Women’s March Florida, speaks to WPTV news about always having the intention of converting the day of protest to an actual movement. When choosing this topic, I was a bit worried that the hashtag would not continue with such intensity since the women’s march is over, however by researching my hashtag and hashtag topic in recent news I have found that the women’s march is just the beginning of an even bigger movement. Lynn speaks about multiple more chapters forming all over the country, emphasizing, “this was never about politics… it’s really about humanity”. This article along with one in USA today ensures the more permanent, long-term plans associated with the hashtag. The women’s march generated an estimate of 5 million people over 84 different counties, many of which are putting the protests into future action. I found that there are non-profit organizations being created and formed all over the country made from the momentum from the march. One quote that jumped out to me which Adams says to WPTV news is that these movements are “not anti-Trump organizations… Trump’s administration ultimately sparked the passion in many people to become proactive in fighting for women’s rights”.  Reading these recent articles guaranteed that the movement has momentum and passion, and that there will be more than enough data to be collected over the next month.

Next, I researched articles on the Women’s March from 1/1/2006-4/1/2006 and found very different results. Since the women’s march which my hashtag refers to happened not even a month ago, these articles have little to do with present day issues. Recent articles speak about women as powerful leaders of the country, whereas the articles I found from 2006 discuss how “the gender revolution at work may be over” (NYTimes). This particular article speaks about the possible shift from women being more than just stay at home mothers, however the tone of the article does not indicate that there is much confidence there. The New York Times article also talks about the decline in participation rates for women in the workforce since the recession of 2001. This article was about women giving up more of the household burden and sharing it with their spouse. From comparing the articles of the two different decades, one can see the dramatic change in the power role that women play in society. This highlights the desperate need for the active groups that are spoken about in the recent news articles. Our country has come so far with human rights, and people need to speak up and join forces to ensure that the country does not take any steps backwards.

I feel that by scraping data through TAGS on #WhyIMarch, I am both collecting live data from people similar to myself, as well as connecting to the actual liveliness of a bigger issue of women’s rights. The hashtag is trending right now because our country has just elected the most controversial President to date. People all over the world, not just our country, are coming together by forming groups that protest some of the statements Trumps administration has put forth. Reading the different articles on my hashtag and topic has shown me that the protest did not stop with the march on January 21^st, but instead has grown into a larger movement whose measurement is shown by the use of #WhyIMarch and other related hashtags on Twitter. The use of pictures along with the hashtag on Twitter portray the individuals’ personal experience and feeling towards the women’s march. Looking at the 300 unique tweets all together on one page shows that the issue is actually spread across a much wider are than just the U.S.

Work Cited

1. Armand, Sarah & Wehrle, Baomy. 2017. “We Are All In!: I’m fired up! I’m activated! Now what?” The Huffington Post, January 29, sec. Impact. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/we-are-all-in_us_588e8048e4b06364bb1e2742.
2. Levy, Laurie. 2017. “The Women’s March: Why America Needs More Women in Charge” Chicago Now, January 30, sec. Still Advocating. http://www.chicagonow.com/still-advocating/2017/01/the-womens-march-why-america-needs-more-women-in-charge/.
3. Przybyla, Heidi M. 2017. “Women’s March organizers form local chapters” USA Today, February 2, sec. On Politics. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2017/02/02/womens-march-forms-local-chapters/97394354/.
4. McRoberts, Meghan. 2017. “Women’s March on Washington inspires creation of non-profit Women’s March Florida” WPTV, Channel 5, February 3. http://www.wptv.com/news/local-news/womens-march-on-washington-inspires-creation-of-non-profit-womens-march-florida
5. Porter, Eduardo.2006. “Stretched to Limit, Women Still March to Work” The New York Times, March 2, sec. Business Day. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/02/business/stretched-to-limit-women-stall-march-to-work.html.
6. Leider, Polly. 2006. “Midlife Changes for Women”CBS News, March 17. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/midlife-changes-for-women/.
7. Noortje Marres & Esther Weltevrede (2013) SCRAPING THE SOCIAL?, Journal of Cultural Economy, 6:3, 313-335, DOI:10.1080/17530350.2013.772070