Intersectional Challenges in Re-Mobilizing the Women’s Movement

Michael T. Heaney, Assistant Professor of Organizational Studies and Political Science, University of Michigan
photo courtesy of Michael Heaney

Panelists:
Anna Kirkland, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Women’s Studies, Political Science, Sociology, and Health Management and Policy
Lisa Disch, Professor of Political Science and Women’s Studies

Numerous groups, organizations, and movements have struggled to unite women as women over the course of American history. These struggles have included (but are not limited to) fights for the right to vote, equal pay for equal work, gender equity in the workplace and in educational settings, freedom from sexual harassment and assault, the right to make choices about reproduction, access to reproductive health care, and funding for research on diseases that disproportionately affect women, such as breast cancer. Yet because women are a highly diverse group, these struggles have been complicated by divisions that exist among women along lines such as race and ethnicity, sexual orientation, class, educational attainment, geography, disability, partisan identity, ideology, and attitudes on the issue of abortion.

After the candidacy and election of Donald J. Trump as President of the United States in 2016, there have been renewed efforts to organize women in the United States under a single, unified umbrella. The most visible effort along these lines is the Women’s March, which organized a massive march on Washington, DC and around the world on the day following Trump’s inauguration as president. The Women’s March also organized a convention, held in Detroit, Michigan in October 2017. This study examines these organizing efforts to assess the extent to which this nascent women’s movement is mending divisions among women and the extent to which divisions still represent challenges to the movement.

Michael Heaney will share findings from his study, and panelists Anna Kirkland and Lisa Disch will offer commentary. A Q&A with the audience will follow the panel discussion.

Event Accessibility :
Ramp and elevator access at the E. Washington Street entrance (by the loading dock). There are accessible restrooms on the south end of Lane Hall, on each floor of the building. A gender neutral restroom is located on the first floor.