This Saturday, the first day of Donald Trump's presidency, I will join the Women's March on London. I will march as a US voter who tried and failed to keep Trump out, and as the co-founder of the UK Women's Equality Party. I will march alongside thousands of party members and a wide range of other organisations and individuals. We will march in solidarity with the Women's March on Washington and at least 386 sister marches taking place across five continents.
It is already clear how women in the US will suffer as a direct consequence of Trump's election. Plans are gathering pace to defund the largest US provider of family planning services, Planned Parenthood, and to restrict abortion rights. At least 46 states are already debating anti-abortion bills. This is only the tip of the iceberg. For many women, the impact will be harder still, because of their race or sexual orientation, because they are differently abled or from a religious community or of an age or social class that is already subject to systemic discrimination.
Some people question why we should have a London March. It's true that we on this side of the Atlantic already have a lot to worry about, with the pay gap still at 19%, 77% of mothers subject to maternity discrimination at work and the UK hurtling towards Brexit without any clear focus on mitigating the repercussions for women. On average women are poorer than men, earn less if employed, are more likely to be caregivers and therefore rely more heavily on public services routinely targeted for cutbacks by governments in times of upheaval. And upheaval is coming. The female half of the population will bear the brunt.
I will march because what happens in Vegas doesn't always stay in Vegas. The US is the world's largest economy and its largest exporter of ideas. The misogyny, racism and homophobia that marked Trump's election campaign is poisoning discourse everywhere and emboldening extremists in many parts of the world. His denial of climate change will affect the very air we breathe. We cannot allow ourselves to treat Trump as if he were a normal President. To do so would be to misunderstand the nature of the beast.
The London March creates a platform to discuss local and national concerns as well as international issues - and it's pretty hard to disentangle these things anyway. Everywhere, mainstream politics is letting women down. Economies that harness the productive power of women perform far better - yet here we are at the beginning of 2017 and there still isn't a single society that is fully gender equal. The many men who will join the marches understand that Trump's war on women is part of a wider reality that hurts them too. Gender equality remains a distant dream and, increasingly, the rights and protections we do enjoy are coming under attack.
Yet another answer is that the London March and sister marches aren't primarily protests. They are affirmations of the things we hold dear. They are about creating alliances and movements. The London March came about because women in the UK heard about plans for the Washington event and independently put out calls for action in solidarity. The Women's Equality Party, contacted by some of these women, alerted them to each other's initiatives and agreed to help with logistics and organisation. As a young party - registered with the Electoral Commission in July 2015 - WE have had to learn very quickly how to do such things and we believe in sharing the benefits of that experience.
Like the Women's Marches, we are collaborative and non-partisan. WE do not believe that the struggle for gender equality belongs to one part of the political spectrum. Only by working together, by combining our voices, can we make real and lasting change.
Of course, the marches cannot halt Trump's presidency or alleviate specific injustices. What they can and will do is help to demonstrate where the vast majority of public sentiment lies. A false narrative has gained currency with Trump's victory—that this was a popular victory, when in fact he didn't even win the popular vote; that the prejudices to which he gave voice are shared by most of us.
It is important to puncture this narrative because mainstream politics is apt to accept dominant narratives and then to try to curry favour with voters rather than interrogating and challenging their presumed views. It is important to ensure the political mainstream knows that most of us don't want any part of the polarised and polarising world of Trump. We want a society in which every one of us, and our children, can flourish. Let's make our voices heard.