Since we have the internet as a source of personal conversation, I wanted to send a note of encouragement to all of us who share the hope of democracy. One of the uses of a long life is remembering when things were worse, and also remembering that when bad times do come, so does an outpouring of community and energy amongst those dedicated to justice.
Below is a speech I delivered at the 2017 Women’s March on Washington, a moment of great organizing that spread across the country and globe. The many protests, marches and demonstrations I have seen over my life remind me of what I said in my Women’s March speech: the Constitution begins with “We the People.” And it is all of us, the people, that keep me hopeful for the days ahead.
-Gloria Steinem, 2025
Dear friends, sisters, and brothers — all of you who are before me today and in 370 marches in every state in this country and on 6 continents, and those who will be communing with us at 1PM in a silent minute for equality — from offices, kitchens, factories, and even prisons all over the world.
I thank each of you and I especially want to thank the hard-working, visionary organizers of this women-led, inclusive march, one of whom managed to give birth while organizing this. Who else can say that?
Thank you for understanding that sometimes, we must put our bodies where our beliefs are. Sometimes pressing “send” is not enough. This also unites us with the many in this world who do not have computers or electricity or literacy, but do have the same hopes and the same dreams.
I think that I and my beloved co-chairs, the Golden Oldies — Harry Belafonte, Dolores Huerta and LaDonna Harris — we may be the oldest marchers here today. So I’ve been thinking about the uses of a long life, and one of them is that you remember when things were worse.
We remember the death of the future with Martin Luther King, with Jack Kennedy, with Bobby Kennedy, with Malcolm X. Without those deaths, for instance, Nixon would not have been elected and there would not have been many of the wars we have had.
Now, our great leaders like Barack Obama and Michelle Obama are still with us. Remember how much we feared they might not be and how much threat there was on their lives — and they are with us.
Our honored Bernie Sanders is still with us. And not only with us, but he’s focusing on economic justice and achieving free universal college education in my state of New York.
And now Hillary Clinton is alive and definitely not in jail. She who told the whole world that women’s rights are human rights and human rights are women’s rights. So crucial when collectively, violence against females in the world has produced a world in which, for the first time ever, there are fewer females than males.
I’m not trying to deny the danger that this day initiates. Trump and his handlers have found a fox for every chicken coop in Washington, and a Twitter finger must not become a trigger finger.
Some very experienced doctors of the American Psychiatric Association have publicly written to warn us that, and I quote, “His widely reported symptoms of mental instability, including grandiosity, impulsivity, hypersensitivity to slights or criticisms, and an apparent inability to distinguish between fantasy and reality lead us to question his fitness for the immense responsibilities of the office.”
This was on full display in his inaugural address yesterday. Everything that happened before him was a disaster and everything that he would do would be fantastic, the best ever, miracles and all the superlatives. He also said he was with the people; indeed, he was the people. I paraphrase a famous quote. I just want to say, “I have met the people, and you are not them.”
We are the people. Just this march in Washington today required a thousand more buses than the entire inauguration — a thousand more buses!
I was just talking with people from our many sister marches, including the one in Berlin, and they asked me to send a special message: “We in Berlin know that walls don’t work.”
And remember Poland, where last month the government passed an anti-abortion law and six million women turned out in the streets, and they had to change it!
We are the people. We have people power and we will use it — all the power you tried to eliminate. For instance, you tried to eliminate the Congressional Ethics Committee. You had to reinstate it, because of people power.
This [march] is the upside of the downside. This is an outpouring of energy and true democracy like I have never seen in my very long life. It is wide in age, it is deep in diversity. Remember: the Constitution does not begin with “I the President.” It begins with “We the People.” So don’t try to divide us. Do not try to divide us. If you force Muslims to register, we will all register as Muslims.
I know that there are women here from corporations and media in all kinds of places that make it kind of risky for you to say what you care about, what you feel, and what you support. And there are women here who have survived a national and global sex industry that profiteers from body invasion.
We are united here for bodily integrity. If you cannot control your body from the skin in, you cannot control it from the skin out, you cannot control your lives, our lives. And that means the right to decide whether and when to give birth without government interference.
We are here and around the world for a deep democracy that says: we will not be quiet. We will not be controlled. We will work for a world in which all countries are connected. God may be in the details, but the goddess is in the connections. We are at one with each other. We are looking at each other, not up. No more asking Daddy.
We are linked. We are not ranked. And this is a day that will change us forever because we are together. Each of us individually and collectively will never be the same again.
When we elect a possible President, we too often go home. We’ve elected an impossible President. We’re never going home. We’re staying together and we’re taking over.
I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Make sure you introduce yourselves to each other and decide what we’re going to do tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. We’re never turning back.
Gloria Steinem delivered this speech at the Women’s March on Washington on January 21, 2017.
Love you Gloria and thank you for your support! Always and forever ❤️🙏