‘People’s Lives Depend on It’: Women on Why They’re Marching
Some 200,000 people are expected to converge on D.C. Saturday for the Women's March on Washington, joined by many thousands of others at hundreds of sister protests around the world. Some 100,000 folks are expected in New York City alone, as part of a march that will end at Trump Tower – or what is now effectively White House North. The Women's March is anticipated to be the largest inauguration-related protest in American history.
Given Trump's track record with women, and the fact that he (narrowly, and not in the popular vote) defeated the candidate who would've been the nation's first female president, it's easy to see why marchers are fired up. Add to that the racism and Islamophobia that weave through the new Trump administration, and the numerous scandals it was embroiled in before Trump even took the oath of office, and you've got a recipe for a powerful show of resistance.
In the lead-up to the Women's March, Clayton Cubitt took a series of powerful portraits of women who are taking part in Saturday's action. Here, in their own works, are those women's reasons for marching.
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Candice Fortin
Image Credit: Clayton Cubitt "There is so much at stake in this upcoming administration. Women are the majority in this country. Our voices should hold weight."
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Erin Malone
Image Credit: Clayton Cubitt "I'm marching because so much will be at stake for women of color under a Trump presidency, and we need to be the leaders that steer our country toward progressive change."
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Faiza Ali
Image Credit: Clayton Cubitt "I want to be on the frontlines of the resistance. The Women's March is not only a show of our power but a reminder of our collective responsibility to love, protect and protest."
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Heidi Sieck
Image Credit: Clayton Cubitt "Without reproductive freedom, this country isn't free. We aren't free."
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Jessica Allier-Lopez
Image Credit: Clayton Cubitt "As a woman, I feel I need to be vocal about oppression. As a veteran, I'm obligated to stand up for my rights and for the rights of others."
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Linda Sarsour
Image Credit: Clayton Cubitt "I have no choice but to organize to protect my family and the communities that I love. We must stand up and fight back, people's lives depend on it."
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Pam Campos
Image Credit: Clayton Cubitt "As an Air Force vet and proud daughter of a Honduran immigrant, like endless women before me, my life is anchored in service and fearlessness. Inequality maims us all, and this march is a show of strengths and our collective leadership."
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Winnie Wong
Image Credit: Clayton Cubitt "I march because our democracy is a dumpster fire. I march because structural patriarchy must be dismantled. I march because we fight sexism with solidarity."
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Hannah Jean Hildreth
Image Credit: Clayton Cubitt "I'm marching because I want to make my grandmother proud and Trump afraid."