The White House Project

Rebecca Liu, Intern

In Zucotti Park, the first thing I noticed about Occupy Wall Street was the tremendous number of women involved in demonstrations. Women are everywhere—in colorful head scarves and sunglasses, worn-out jeans and faded army-green jackets. They’re occupying everything from medical supplies stations to food stations, handing out ponchos and organizing boxes of donated goods. These women are concerned with issues involving not only the political-economic climate as members of “the 99%,” but they’re also impassioned by issues of women’s rights, as well as gay, lesbian, and transgender equality—all issues under the broader umbrella of social justice. Sprawled over signs and shirts are the words “Peaceful protest is an American birthright, not a crime” along with “Wall Street is Our Street.” It’s the right kind of directed anger, and women are taking part. As a recent article in The Nation states, “Women have been entrenched in the day-to-day (running meetings, procuring food) and long-term (analyzing structure, building solidarity) work of OWS from day one, and are committed to sticking around.” [Read the article here: http://www.thenation.com/article/164197/where-are-women-occupy-wall-street-everywhere-and-theyre-not-going-away]

It is paramount that women become as involved as possible in OWS. In the same way the Civil Rights Era of the ‘60s changed how we talk about race, the marches for passage of the Equal Rights Amendment changed the conversation about women in America, this generation’s protests at Wall Street will begin to change how we view wealth and privilege in America—as well as increased, direct involvement in politics. We must play a key role in the most successful series of peaceful protest in the 21^st century.

Already there are women-specific groups within OWS that want to promote their own issues in addition to those of OWS: women of color and Muslim women, as well as queer-identified women. The women of Occupy Wall Street have even set up their own twitter account: @WomenOWS where they “strive to elevate women’s voices in movements of change.” While promoting gender equality means not seeing women as separate or distinct from men, and instead seeing men and women as citizens and human beings alike, such a social movement like Occupy Wall Street is nonetheless the perfect forum in which to distinguish and highlight women’s issues because we do not currently experience gender equality. Specifically concerning political and corporate leadership, women remain extremely underrepresented in those sectors.

With its horizontally structured leadership and democratic representation, OWS benefits from allowing different groups within the movement to voice their opinions without worrying about singular leaders dismissing their concerns. Beyond merely identifying with the anti-hegemony of the rich, women can then advance their own issues due to the movement’s mobilization for broader social change.

Occupy Wall Street, then, is the easiest and most effective way to allow the social voice to draw attention to issues concerning not only women and gender inequality, but also women and ethnicity or queer identity. With the wide media coverage of the demonstrations, such issues are able to ride the wave of social change.  

With all this in mind, I urge the women of The White House Project to participate in Occupy Wall Street either in New York City or in one of the movement’s many national offshoots: Occupy LA, Occupy Chicago or Occupy San Francisco. For more OWS info, please visit http://occupywallst.org/.

Rebecca Liu is a sophomore at Columbia University studying English and Political Science. She is excited to be a part of the White House Project as an intern working in grant research and writing. Rebecca is also a member of Columbia New Poetry, where she serves as Editor. In her free time, she can be found at poetry events in the city.