Ladies Getting In Formation for 2024

We're good and mad, but also tired and sad. So what can we do?

I’m currently reading Rebecca Traister’s Good and Mad, a treatise / history of women’s anger. It was written in 2019, and it’s like entering a time machine.

It places you back in the incendiary anger that sent millions into the street in 2017, and the fire of the #metoo movement in 2018 that toppled many predators. But it didn’t touch the apex predator, the President at the time who bragged about assaulting women and ended up in court over hush money to porn stars and libel against a woman he was convicted of assaulting, and who packed the Supreme Court with conservatives that repealed women’s sacred right to make decisions about their bodies.

It hearkened back to a time that felt fiery, angry, sharp, full of offenses that drew people to the streets and the voting booths. Five years later, we’re in a very different era. It’s an election year, but I haven’t seen the fire. Every woman (well, every person) I’ve spoken to is tired. Doubtful. Resigned to a fate of an America that will continue to erode their rights rather than be a beacon of progress.

So what happened?

Women have been winning in cultural influence, but losing in political influence.

Last year was the year that Barbie grossed a billion. Beyonce and Taylor have been ruling the stages, the charts and the conversation. Caitlin Clark is the break-out star of March Madness.

Young women dominate in cultural spheres. But when it comes to the top levels of politics, we have the uncompelling choice between two old white guys. The sad thing is, in 2020 many women entered the primaries on both sides. This year, only Nikki Haley dared to put a high-heeled foot into the Presidential ring. According to the Center for American Women & Politics, there are fewer women running for both House and Senate seats this year; 70 women filed to run for Senate in 2022, and this year only 43 have, and 583 filed to run for House Representative in 2020, whereas this year only 428 have.

Even as more women hold seats of power in pop culture, the fire that drove record numbers of women into politics in 2020 has died down. And in spite of Verizon’s Super Bowl ad, Beyonce’s not in government yet.

So we’re relitigating the 2020 election with the same two guys…but now the stakes are much higher.

One old white guy has 88 felony charges, has assaulted women, and is unrepentantly moving towards fascism. The other old white man…well, he’s upheld some of Trump’s most repugnant policies on immigration and has been financially and vocally supporting Israel while they starve, bomb and destroy Palestinians.

There isn’t a strong option for progressive voters, and many people will struggle with who to vote for as President in November. So I won’t tell you who to vote for, but I’m very clear on what to vote against. And mostly, tell you to please vote.

The stakes are incredibly high for women. The right’s been working for decades to stack courts and lower level government positions with conservative politicians, chipping away at abortion access and abortion rights. Not only that:

Young women are more progressive than young men, but global politics is shifting more conservative.

A recent set of research compiled by the Financial Times showed a growing gap between the political leanings of young women and men worldwide.

This set off a flurry of speculation as to why: there’s a radicalization of young men happening online globally, and in the US they’re getting fed the raw meat of Trumpism. This reflects a global lean to the far right, with conservative waves in Europe and in other areas as well.

In the meanwhile, young women are watching their rights erode—and there’s some evidence from the US primaries that less are coming out to vote. If they don’t vote, then all of us will get to sit by the sidelines as history unfolds.

But in spite of the doubt and the resignation and the shitty choices at the top, this isn’t the time to sit back. Last year was proclaimed year of the girl. Let’s make it count.

A few places to start

Talk to your friends about politics.
Remember what mad felt like, and consider how much madder you may feel in a year.
Support, fund or volunteer:

• Emily’s List - Supporting national candidates

• Sister District - Supporting progressive candidates at the state + local level

• National Abortion Funds - Supporting funds that help women access abortions (less political, but one of the spaces I support to help women who have already been experiencing restrictions on their reproductive rights)