Women's marches are transforming from civil disobedience into a campaign for sustained and significant change
Gentlemen, step away from the leather chairs and the rich mahogany shelving. Those footsteps you hear outside the door are women, and they’ve come for the keys to the kingdom.
Interesting side note to the massive Women’s March protests last month, as pointed out by one of my colleagues. He noted: “You had hundreds of thousands of women marching, and at no point was anyone really concerned about violence. You wouldn’t have that with that size of a crowd in any other circumstance.”
The marches — held on the anniversary of the inaugural march held in early 2017 to protest the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States and his administration’s policies — have grown far beyond their American origins and become a global phenomenal.
Across Canada, women (and supportive male counterparts) gathered in at least 38 communities. They joined 200,000 marchers in New York, 300,000 in Chicago and 500,000 in Los Angeles, to name drop a few protests — the numbers really are staggering. Waves of pink also hit the United Kingdom, Italy and Japan.
Fed by the flames of the #MeToo campaign, the movement is transforming from civil disobedience into a force for sustained and significant change.
People have figured out that the Trumps of the world are incapable of changing their stripes and it’s time for them to step aside. (So maybe pink is the new orange?)
Trump himself marked the occasion with a tone-deaf and self-congratulatory tweet (he really doesn’t seem to get his starring role in the movement):
“Beautiful weather all over our great country, a perfect day for all Women to March,” he wrote. “Get out there now to celebrate the historic milestones and unprecedented economic success and wealth creation that has taken place over the last 12 months. Lowest female unemployment in 18 years!”
Because having a minimum wage job — or a really good job that pays 77 cents on the dollar — is, you know, bigly success.
Women are doing far more than wearing pink hats and marching. The focus has shifted to the ballot box, with a “Power to the Polls” movement to upend the political landscape.
The idea is to ensure more women are registered to vote and, just as critically, more women are running for office.
“There is an unprecedented surge of first-time female candidates, overwhelmingly Democratic, running for offices big and small, from the U.S. Senate and state legislatures to local school boards,” wrote journalist Charlotte Alter in Time magazine last month.
“At least 79 women are exploring runs for governor in 2018, potentially doubling a record for female candidates set in 1994, according to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University.”
This surge will undoubtedly have a major impact on politics in the U.S. and on this side of the border as the movement inevitably spreads. We might like to pretend we’re progressive because we’ve already had a female prime minister, but Kim Campbell was appointed by her party, not elected by Canadians.
It’s hard to imagine a downside to this movement or to having more women in positions of power. Because, let’s face it, women have a pretty impressive track record.
Over the years, Canadian HR Reporter has trotted out the link between financial performance and the representation of women on corporate boards. While it’s not new data, it is worth dusting off again — Fortune 500 companies with the highest percentage of women board directors outperformed those with the least by 53 percent when it came to return on equity.
Return on sales was 42 per cent better, and return on invested capital was 66 per cent higher.
It will be compelling to watch what happens in elections in the coming years as this wave of pink rolls towards Ottawa and Washington.
Welcome to our friends in Western Canada
Canadian HR Reporter is excited about its new partnership with the Chartered Professionals in Human Resources (CPHR). This is the first of four issues this year going to every member of the associations in British Columbia, Alberta and the territories.
While we have always been a national publication that prides itself on covering the profession, from Victoria to St. John’s, this is the first time many professionals who are members of CPHR British Columbia & Yukon and CPHR Alberta have gotten their hands on a copy. We welcome the 6,000 members in B.C. and 5,700 members in Alberta to the family.
It builds on a relationship we have with the Human Resources Professionals Association (HRPA) that sees all 23,000 of its members receive this publication four times in 2018 as well.
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