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Julia Rogala

Professor Vaughn

Intermediate Composition

19 October 2018

A Genre Analysis of Millions of Women in the Streets

Immediately following the inauguration of President Donald Trump in January of

2017, millions of women around the world took to the streets in protest. They marched

for gender equality, civil rights, LGBTQ+ rights, immigration rights, and many other

intersecting issues. The Women’s March continues since its inception as one of the

largest demonstrations ever observed globally. This unprecedented grassroots movement,

created in just mere months after the election, was met with immense support all over the

world, but also some criticism. Using sources from different genres, one can begin to see

differences and patterns in how a topic is presented. The first source used to analyze the

Women’s March is a scholarly article that used empirical data to understand how

different people with different issues will march together as one. The second source is an

opinion editorial from CNN, which criticizes the intersectionality of the march, and

issues that arise because of it. The third source is a poster from the Women’s March

website, which was shared across platforms before and after the march. Analysis of

different sources covering the Women’s March emphasizes how it is portrayed across

genres, and how these genres can influence the march itself.

Movements have the distinct ability to mobilize thousands of people across

diverse backgrounds for one event. That is what was analyzed in Dow, Fisher, and Ray’s

article, “Intersectionality Takes It to the Streets: Mobilizing Across Diverse Interests for
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the Women’s March.” As an academic text, there was a direct question the researchers

were seeking to understand: how did different individuals, with different issues at heart,

come together for one movement? Using a strong amount of logos to support their data,

from survey data of five hundred and sixteen women surveyed at the 2017 Women’s

March (Dow 2), the researchers discovered that individuals could be mobilized on

intersectional issues due to the connections between them. In their data, they found that

“the large turnout at the Women’s March, which organizers and others see as an indicator

of success, is the direct result of the effective mobilization of various individuals and

organizational constituencies that were motivated by intersectional issues” (5). In other

words, people who identify with a unique issue are allies to those who identify with

another issue. The researchers stated that for their intended audience, grassroots

organizations, their data could be helpful to mobilize protestors in multiple sects of

issues. This could aid in explaining how unique issues can intertwine and be fought for I

a similar platform. The tone of Dow’s article is neutral, due to its professional use, and

has an expert voice. The text itself, being academic in nature, included scholarly jargon

and elements of a scientific method, such as “Results” (2), “Discussion” (5), and

“Independent” and “Dependent Variables” (6). This contributes to the overall credibility

and ethos of the text, as readers identify scholarly texts as trustworthy sources. Dow’s

article serves as an academic source that can be used as credible research to support the

effectiveness of an intersectional movement, such as the Women’s March.

In a mainstream article by CNN News, Salena Zito gives a critical eye to the

Women’s March, and its approach to these intersectional issues. Mainstream articles

generally have a more informal tone, and sometimes present a bias, depending on where
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the source is coming from. Analyzing an example of a mainstream article, like Zito’s,

gives insight into these elements and helps to determine whether it is useful in portraying

an event. Zito calls out the movement’s credibility, and attributes this to its multiple

issues. Blatantly refuting Dow’s research and article, Zito states, “If this movement is to

be successful where it counts, in local legislative races that eventually filter up to the

federal level, there needs to be more cohesiveness and less exclusivity” (Zito). However,

Zito’s finding was concluded by her own opinion, as compared to the Dow article, which

used measurable data. This negatively affects the ethos of Zito’s article. Due to the nature

of opinion pieces, Zito appealed highly to emotion, which contributes to the pathos of her

article. When an article has strong pathos, the audience will begin to connect to the text

on a deeper level. Playing on this fact, she mentions a woman who states that “glass

ceilings have opened up all across the nation, and that her daughter’s abilities to achieve

anything they want were proof of that.” This heartfelt anecdote makes the claim that

marching is unnecessary to due to recent barriers being crossed by women, which is

meant to both inspire readers and placate marchers (Zito). By using emotion to claim that

some elements of the march may have been unnecessary, this would attract readers who

agree with her, and may also affect or change the views of the march on her readers.

CNN is a very popular news source, known to be fairly moderate, so her audience may

resonate with moderate statements, and consume news only through a few sources on a

daily basis. Unlike the Dow article, Zito’s article is written for the public; therefore she

uses simple, easy-to-read word choice. Using descriptive words to create a narrative, such

as “muddled, thorny, and divisive,” one can see her tone when describing the march

(Zito). Her language seems to come off as condescending and dismissive, due to the
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opinionated, conservative nature of the article. This is a sharp contrast to Dow’s article,

which uses neutral language to emphasize its objectivity. Due to her clear bias, Zito’s

article may not be used as a credible source for information on the Women’s March, but

may serve as a way to strengthen a readers’ personal opinion.

In a more unconventional way to analyze the march, the last source is a poster

created by the organization of the Women’s March. Created by experts from the

Women’s March itself, this poster comes straight from the source of the march, which

gives it a strong ethos. This poster, which is available as a downloadable graphic on the

official website of the march, features a simple and clean design of three seemingly

female silhouettes standing next to each other. As a genre, art is meant to convey

meaning and invoke emotion in the viewer. If this poster is used to motivate its viewers

to join in the march, it must be moving and inspiring enough to achieve this. With this in

mind, the pathos of this design invokes a feeling of camaraderie between women, and is

attempting to mobilize people to the cause, much like Dow discusses in the scholarly

article. Coincidentally, another poster that is presented on the website simply states “Our

Liberation Is Bound In Each Other’s”, which is exactly what Dow discussed. This means

that the Women’s March is using the tactic of intersectional issues, which Dow had

researched, to propagate their message. On the original poster, under the silhouettes of

the women and the title of the march, the phrase “The Rise of the Women = The Rise of

the Nation.” This phrase invokes a powerful, rebellious feeling within the viewer. The

use of the word “rise” creates a hopeful and inspiring phrase, while equating women to

the nation further develops the idea of equality. Since this poster comes directly from

those who orchestrate the march, and one can see on the rest of the website how much
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work is put into persuading people to the cause, it is clearly attempting to mobilize

viewers. Next on the poster is the date and time of the march, as well as the location,

which is directly inviting viewers to the march. This is opposed to the other two sources,

which never directly invite readers to join the march. Being a scholarly article, Dow

could not try to sway readers one way, which would risk credibility. Zito’s article was

against the march, thus she wouldn’t have told her readers to join it. However, the

audience of this poster will most likely be those who support or wish to join the march,

and may even see this poster being used at the march. Therefore, the creators of this

poster made something that would invite viewers to the march. The location of the march

happened to be on a corner of Third Street and Independence Avenue, which was

probably no coincidence. Including the location, on Independence Avenue, was a

deliberate word choice, which further emphasizes the idea of the liberation of women.

Above the location is written in large bold letters “JOIN US,” further pushing the viewer

to come to the march (Women’s March). This poster shows just how important the march

really is to its participants, which in turn portrays it as a meaningful and consequential

event. While this poster could be used in a way to motivate individuals to join the march,

but it most likely would not sway those against it.

Depending on the genre and what sources are used, the Women’s March can be

used as a token example of an organized movement that brings many people together, or

a too-busy protest with too many issues and too many women in PussyHats, or a simple

and clean way to motivate individuals to stand up for a cause. By looking at the rhetoric

and analyzing the elements of a source, one can understand how genre plays an important

role in how an event is researched, reviewed, and illustrated.

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Works Cited

Dow, D., Fisher, D., & Ray, R. “Intersectionality Takes It to the Streets: Mobilizing

Across Diverse Interests for the Women’s March.” Science Advances. 2017.

“Women’s March.” www.womensmarch.com/graphics/

Zito, Salena. “What the Women’s March was Missing.” CNN News. January 23, 2017.