The Women's March on Seattle (stylized as the Womxn's March on Seattle) was the

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

affiliate of the worldwide

2017 Women's March The Women's March was an American protest on January 21, 2017, the day after the first inauguration of Donald Trump as the president of the United States. It was prompted by Trump's policy positions and rhetoric, which were and are seen as mi ...

protest on January 21, 2017. Newspapers including ''

The Seattle Times ''The Seattle Times'' is an American daily newspaper based in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1891, ''The Seattle Times'' has the largest circulation of any newspaper in the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region. The Seattle Time ...

'' said it was Seattle's largest protest march in history. The march route was from Seattle's Central District through Westlake Park in

Downtown Seattle Downtown is the central business district of Seattle, Washington. It is fairly compact compared with other city centers on the U.S. West Coast due to its geographical situation, being hemmed in on the north and east by hills, on the west by ...

to the

Seattle Center The Seattle Center is an entertainment, education, tourism and performing arts center located in the Lower Queen Anne, Seattle, Lower Queen Anne neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, United States. Constructed for the Century 21 Exposition, 1962 W ...

. Drawing an estimated 120,000 to 175,000 marchers according to police and organizers respectively, more than the

1999 Seattle WTO protests The 1999 Seattle WTO protests, sometimes referred to as the Battle of Seattle, were a series of anti-globalization protests surrounding the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999, where members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) convened at the ...

, the March filled the entire route through downtown by early afternoon, making vehicle traffic across the route impossible. It was expected to be the third largest protest march in the United States on January 21, after the Women's March on Washington (D.C.) and the march in Los Angeles. An unusual feature of the march is that it was planned to be held in silence. The event was named using the spelling " womxn"; organizers stated that this naming was meant to symbolize

intersectionality Intersectionality is an analytical framework for understanding how groups' and individuals' social and political identities result in unique combinations of discrimination and privilege. Examples of these intersecting and overlapping factor ...

with the

transgender A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were sex assignment, assigned at birth. The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes perso ...

community.

Effects

Sound Transit Sound Transit (ST), officially the Central Puget Sound Regional Transit Authority, is a public transit agency serving the Seattle metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. It manages the Link light rail system in Se ...

and

King County Metro King County Metro, officially the King County Metro Transit Department and often shortened to Metro, is the public transit authority of King County, Washington, which includes the city of Seattle. It is the eighth-largest transit bus agency in t ...

rerouted many bus routes and added additional

Link light rail Link light rail is a light rail system with some rapid transit characteristics that serves the Seattle metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. It is managed by Sound Transit in partnership with local transit pro ...

service in anticipation of disruption to the city's transportation grid. The march was routed on South Jackson Street through the Chinatown-International District neighborhood, causing major traffic disruptions. Some businesses in the neighborhood reported large losses in sales, taking place in the lead-up to the

Lunar New Year Lunar New Year is the beginning of a new year based on lunar calendars or, informally, lunisolar calendars. Lunar calendar years begin with a new moon and have a fixed number of lunar months, usually twelve, in contrast to lunisolar calendar ye ...

(the largest shopping day of the year in the neighborhood). While restaurants reported good sales, grocery stores that rely on bulk purchases reported losses of up to 65 percent. Prior to the march, business leaders warned that the march would disrupt sales and wrote open letters in the ''

International Examiner The ''International Examiner'' is a free monthly Asian American newspaper and media nonprofit organization based in Seattle, Washington's historic Chinatown International District (CID). It was founded in 1974 by Gerald Yuasa and Lawrence Imam ...

'' asking march participants to return to the neighborhood to offset losses.

Participation by people outside of Seattle

Hundreds of participants came to Seattle in organized groups from Eastside cities including Sammamish and Kirkland by charter bus, the

Kitsap Peninsula The Kitsap Peninsula () lies west of Seattle across Puget Sound, in Washington state in the Pacific Northwest. Hood Canal separates the peninsula from the Olympic Peninsula on its west side. The peninsula, a.k.a. "Kitsap", encompasses all of Kits ...

Washington State Ferries Washington State Ferries (WSF) is a public ferry system in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. It is a division of the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) and operates 10 routes serving 20 terminals within Puget ...

, and other Washington locales.

Other Pacific Northwest marches

Other events in Twisp, Spokane, Yakima and Walla Walla in

Eastern Washington Eastern Washington is the region of the U.S. state of Washington located east of the Cascade Range. It contains the city of Spokane (the second largest city in the state), the Tri-Cities, the Columbia River and the Grand Coulee Dam, the H ...

and numerous cities in

Western Washington Western Washington is a region of the United States defined as the area of Washington State west of the Cascade Mountains. This region is home to the state's largest city, Seattle, the state capital, Olympia, and most of the state's residents. ...

, as well as

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

drew additional thousands of marchers. The event at the state capitol in Olympia had 10,000 attendees. For days, regional knitting shops were sold out of pink yarn used to make pussy hats crafted and worn by the protestors. File:2017 Women's March at Olympia.jpg, State capitol in Olympia

Endorsements

The Seattle march was endorsed by Washington's senior United States senator,

Patty Murray Patricia Lynn Murray (, October 11, 1950) is an American politician serving in her sixth term as a United States senator from Washington (state), Washington, beginning her tenure in 1993, and is the state's Seniority in the United States Senate, ...

, who said she would be physically present at the D.C. event. The King County

AFL–CIO The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) is a national trade union center that is the largest federation of unions in the United States. It is made up of 61 national and international unions, together r ...

chapter officially participated in the event. The mayor of Seattle, Ed Murray, marched.

References

External links

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Seattle Womxn Marching Forward
{{Portal bar, Feminism 2017 in Seattle 2017 in women's history 2017 protests January 2017 in the United States Protest marches in the United States Protests against Donald Trump Protests against results of United States elections Protests in Seattle Women's March Women's marches in the United States History of women in Washington (state) Women in Seattle Feminism in Washington (state)