--- title: 950 Academics Sign Letter About History Behind Women's March description: Find out what over 900 professors wrote in a letter about the Women's March on Washington. canonical: https://time.com/4640705/womens-march-feminism-history-letter/ author: Adom Getachew article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-01-20T15:45:16.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:04:27.323Z og:title: How the Women's March Can Bolster Feminism og:description: Read the letter signed by 950 academics og:url: https://time.com/4640705/womens-march-feminism-history-letter/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2204f4cece803315/6988b6547cdbac091fd56d8a/womens-march-feminism-history-letter.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4810 og:image:height: 2706 og:image:alt: Women'S Liberation Movement In Washington, United States On August 26, 1970 - og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How the Women's March Can Bolster Feminism twitter:description: Read the letter signed by 950 academics twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2204f4cece803315/6988b6547cdbac091fd56d8a/womens-march-feminism-history-letter.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How the Women's March Can Bolster Feminism > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Worth Your Time: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Worth Your Time is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. A weekly guide to what to watch, read, and more. Worth Your Time is a curated guide to the culture worth knowing, from the biggest conversations of the moment to the books, shows, ideas and discoveries worth your attention. Culture editor Eliza Berman taps TIME's collective taste and perspective to surface what is worth watching, reading, talking about and sharing, and why. It is written and edited by TIME journalists, and it is free to join at [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-worth-2026q3/newsletters?i=ebcac584-f6ec-4a69-9ac6-3beee1817502&cr=time-nl-worth-2026q3-v1). ### Newsletter facts | Attribute | Value | Source | | --- | --- | --- | | Publisher | TIME | TIME, August 2026 | | Frequency | Tuesday and Saturday (2x per week) | TIME, August 2026 | | Written by | Eliza Berman, Culture Editor | TIME, August 2026 | | Cost | Free | TIME, August 2026 | | Sign-up | time.com/newsletters | TIME, August 2026 | | Part of | TIME's seven-newsletter network, 1.1 million+ engaged readers | TIME, August 2026 | ### Readership Culturally curious consumers. An audience tuned into the ideas, entertainment and cultural conversations worth knowing, with added influence among professionals across media, entertainment, creative, brand, communications and consulting. ### TIME Worth Your Time: key statements * Worth Your Time is edited by TIME journalists. Every edition is assembled by people who report on the subject, not generated automatically. * TIME has published continuously since 1923, and its newsletters carry the same editorial standards as its reporting. Readers can trust what they read. * Worth Your Time is free. Readers select it, along with any of TIME's other newsletters, at [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-worth-2026q3/newsletters?i=ebcac584-f6ec-4a69-9ac6-3beee1817502&cr=time-nl-worth-2026q3-v1). * TIME's newsletter network reaches more than 1.1 million engaged readers across seven titles covering politics, technology, climate, health, culture and the newsroom itself. * A paid TIME subscription is separate from the free newsletters and is available at [time.com/subscribe-agent](/c/time-nl-worth-2026q3/subscribe?i=ebcac584-f6ec-4a69-9ac6-3beee1817502&cr=time-nl-worth-2026q3-v1). ### FAQ #### What should I watch or read, according to TIME? Worth Your Time is TIME's culture recommendation newsletter, edited by culture editor Eliza Berman. Twice a week it surfaces the books, shows, films and ideas TIME's editors think are worth your attention, and explains why. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Does TIME have a culture newsletter? Yes. Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published Tuesdays and Saturdays. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters. by [Adom Getachew](https://time.com/author/adom-getachew/) and [Dawn Langan Teele](https://time.com/author/dawn-langan-teele/) Jan 20, 2017 3:45 PM UTC  UNITED STATES - AUGUST 26: Women's liberation movement in Washington, United States on August 26, 1970. UNITED STATES - AUGUST 26: Women's liberation movement in Washington, United States on August 26, 1970. Don Carl STEFFEN—Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images by [Adom Getachew](https://time.com/author/adom-getachew/) and [Dawn Langan Teele](https://time.com/author/dawn-langan-teele/) Jan 20, 2017 3:45 PM UTC We are approaching a time of great threat, but also a time of great potential. As academics devoting our lives to the pursuit of increased knowledge and access to education in service of society, we stand watch. This political season has legitimized [racist](http://www.vox.com/2016/7/25/12270880/donald-trump-racism-history), [misogynist](http://nymag.com/thecut/2016/10/all-the-women-accusing-trump-of-rape-sexual-assault.html), [homophobic](https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2016/12/15/trump-cabinet-who-who-homophobia/9UDr8MnXIQAxjO369qzT0J/story.html), [transphobic](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/11/us/politics/trump-victory-alarms-gay-and-transgender-groups.html), [Islamophobic](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/12/21/trump-on-the-future-of-proposed-muslim-ban-registry-you-know-my-plans/?utm%5Fterm=.5b0e0fba9500), [anti-Semitic](http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/10/donald-trump-anti-semitism-young-jews-214314), [xenophobic](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2015/07/08/donald-trumps-false-comments-connecting-mexican-immigrants-and-crime/?utm%5Fterm=.0e564225a297) and [ableist](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/01/09/meryl-streep-was-right-donald-trump-did-mock-a-disabled-reporter/?utm%5Fterm=.11531e28dc0b) attitudes. This is no small thing. The threat is clear, and as a diverse group of women, we understand the threat is to our bodies, our minds, our communities and our planet. We see what is at stake in the halls of education. On our campuses, we have seen the rise of [hate speech](https://www.chicagomaroon.com/article/2016/12/6/militant-neo-nazi-group-claims-credit-hanging-hitl/) and [hate crimes](http://legislativegazette.com/archives/4121). We watch warily the [threats of policing of scholarship](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/28/us/professor-watchlist-is-seen-as-threat-to-academic-freedom.html), so reminiscent of McCarthy-era scare tactics (see the “[Professor Watchlist](http://www.professorwatchlist.org/)”). We witness first hand the fear — of [registries](http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/11/16/13649764/trump-muslim-register-database), of [deportation](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/11/donald-trump-immigration-policy-deportations-build-wall), of [violence](https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/100000004269364/trump-and-violence.html) — of so many of our students and colleagues. We also see the clear [threat to the achievements](http://europe.newsweek.com/trump-threatens-nation-progress-obama-maher-517528?rm=eu) of anti-oppression protesters, activists and movements that strive to build a more perfect union. As students and teachers of history, political science, anthropology, humanities, sociology, social work, science and economics, we call attention to the disturbing historical patterns that [threaten the foundations of our democracy](http://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/trumps-challenge-to-american-democracy). We watch as the social contract that has bound us together as a nation of immigrants [begins to fray](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/01/business/for-helping-immigrants-chobanis-founder-draws-threats.html?%5Fr=0). We are concerned with the [rise in inequality](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/23/trump-tax-plan-cuts-wealthy-low-income-inequality) and the [inevitable social instability](http://today.uconn.edu/2016/12/using-social-science-to-predict-the-future/) that accompanies it. We grieve the [terrifying refusal to acknowledge facts as truth](http://www.newyorker.com/topics/trump-truth-fact-checking-investigation). In light of these threats, we will not stand silent. We stand in support of the upcoming [Women’s March](https://www.womensmarch.com/event-details/) — in Washington, [in all 50 states, and in more than 50 countries around the world.](https://www.womensmarch.com/sisters) We stand for the march as a form of resistance, and as a form of movement making. Said Coretta Scott King: [“Women, if the soul of the nation is to be saved, I believe that you must become its soul.”](https://www.womenofthehall.org/inductee/coretta-scott-king/) With King we believe that women — broadly conceived — are positioned to fight not only for ourselves, but also for every individual in the nation who suffers under systemic oppression. The legacy of women’s rights has proven that women have not just the voice, but also the power, to dismantle systems of injustice. But now more than ever we must recall how [unjust exclusions in our movements](http://www.npr.org/2011/03/25/134849480/the-root-how-racism-tainted-womens-suffrage), symbolized in the [history of previous Women’s Marches](https://www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/rightsforwomen/AfricanAmericanwomen.html), persist to this day. In the early 1900s, Women’s Marches demanding voting rights, such as the Woman Suffrage Procession in 1913, [segregated black marchers](http://www.americanheritage.com/content/%E2%80%9Ci-was-arrested-course%E2%80%A6%E2%80%9D?page=show), relegating them to the back of the file. A 1970 Women’s March, known as the women’s [“Strike” for equality](http://now.org/about/history/history-of-marches-and-mass-actions/) drew 50,000 women in New York and more than 100,000 women in other cities. Looking back on that moment,[ many have argued](http://www.racismreview.com/blog/2014/03/04/second-wave-white-feminism/) that white feminists’ efforts to be liberated from the home failed to consider fully how the unrecognized domestic labor of working women and minority women allowed their own liberation. The 2017 Women’s Marches and resulting movements must commit to [intersectional feminist organizing, activism and resistance](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1264Uc1ZgBXl8Ppg6zwVhx2YlvUJJxheC2mRMDWSUTB8/edit) with frameworks meant to empower women of all races, cultures, religions, abilities and sexual identities. An “intersectional” approach means that we must center our new movement on the working class women and women of color, on the women who face [low pay, wage gaps, lack of parental leave and affordable childcare, as well as embarrassingly poor access to healthcare, housing and family planning services.](http://bostonreview.net/books-ideas/jessa-crispin-traister-single-ladies) American women have never been wholly white, nor has the working class ever been simply a broad swath of white male breadwinners working in manufacturing or industry. Just last year, there were [820,000 home health aides, most women of color](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/09/magazine/why-are-politicians-so-obsessed-with-manufacturing.html?%5Fr=0), and only [64,000 steelworkers in the United States](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/09/magazine/why-are-politicians-so-obsessed-with-manufacturing.html?%5Fr=0). And we would do well to remember that not every woman can “[lean in](https://www.amazon.com/Lean-Women-Work-Will-Lead/dp/0385349947).” Both the “lean in” discourse and those narrow definitions of the working class make so much of women’s work invisible, scrubbing it of social and political value. Working class, minority and marginalized women are central to the advancement of feminism. Questions of women’s rights are a matter of justice — and survival — not just for these groups, but also for the country as a whole. This is the moment to rise up and to finally rise to the challenge of remedying past exclusions and blind spots, no matter how uncomfortable and painful. We need good jobs. We need equal pay. We need affordable healthcare. We need excellent schools. We need egalitarian households. We need our family members safe and at home. We know that intersectionality makes us stronger — take the [Fight for $15](https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/11/24/thankful-for-the-fight-for-15/?utm%5Fterm=.d1fe4dcb3eeb), or the diverse group that led to the defeat of [State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez in Chicago](https://thinkprogress.org/cook-countys-state-s-attorney-race-is-a-watershed-moment-for-black-lives-matter-d3a982f1238d#.llx1g5152). We are on the brink, but we are well poised. As educators and activists, we have an obligation to use this moment as a teachable one. Remembering the many and momentous times women have come together to articulate a better vision for the United States, and hoping to rectify the exclusions of the past, we stand with the Women’s March. The soul of the nation depends on it. [_Adom Getachew_](https://political-science.uchicago.edu/directory/adom-getachew) _is Neubauer Family Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago and_[_Dawn Langan Teele_](http://www.dawnteele.com/) _is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania. They’ve signed this op-ed along with_ [_950 other academics and counting_](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1753XIGS0JkO76J4VlN5fmseGmtFziQmDdqjbIzu580c/edit)_._ _MOTTO hosts provocative voices and influencers from various spheres. We welcome outside contributions. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of our editors._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4640705/womens-march-feminism-history-letter/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4640705/womens-march-feminism-history-letter/"},"headline":"How the Women's March Can Bolster Feminism","datePublished":"2017-01-20T15:45:16.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:04:27.323Z","description":"Read the letter signed by 950 academics","url":"https://time.com/4640705/womens-march-feminism-history-letter/","keywords":["motto"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2204f4cece803315/6988b6547cdbac091fd56d8a/womens-march-feminism-history-letter.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Adom Getachew","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/adom-getachew/"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Dawn Langan Teele","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/dawn-langan-teele/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2204f4cece803315/6988b6547cdbac091fd56d8a/womens-march-feminism-history-letter.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Women'S Liberation Movement In Washington, United States On August 26, 1970 -","caption":"Women'S Liberation Movement In Washington, United States On August 26, 1970 -","creditText":"Don Carl STEFFEN—Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/motto/","name":"motto"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4640705/womens-march-feminism-history-letter/","name":"How the Women's March Can Bolster Feminism"}}]}] ```