PolicyCast: Turning a March into a Movement

March 10, 2017
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In this episode of PolicyCast, Dr. Timothy McCarthy discusses the Women's March on Washington.If the Women’s March on Washington was a spark, what does it now take to fan that spark into a flame?

How do you harness the energy of an historic protest and translate it into real policy change? In this week’s roundtable discussion, three Kennedy School experts break down the challenges facing the nascent movement, and compare it to both contemporary and historical movements in the United States.

Our three guests include Assistant Professor Leah Wright Rigueur, Women and Public Policy Program Executive Director Victoria Budson, and Adjunct Lecturer Tim McCarthy.

On our guests’ reading lists:

Victoria Budson encourages listeners to visit the Women And Public Policy Program website, and the Gender Action Portal in particular. It’s packed full of easily digestible summaries of the latest research on a range of gender issues from leadership and negotiation to organizational design, political empowerment, and more. She also urged listeners to be proactive on the issues that matter most to them.

“I would encourage you to Google any topic or issue of concern to you and to actually follow it… because no matter who you are, or what your vantage point is, you are an expert on your own life and how you experience the policies in the United States.” — Victoria Budson

 

Leah Wright Rigueur urged listeners to watch a recent panel discussion at the JFK Jr. Forum entitled Leaders of “The Resistance,” and recommended taking a deeper look at organizations like the Black Youth Project, We The Protestors, and Black Lives Matter Inc., who are often known primarily for their protests, but have also done a lot of work on policy development around equality.

Tim McCarthy says he personally has been turning to history to make sense of the present, recently re-reading Howard Zinn’s People’s History of the United States, and revisiting one particularly important part of the U.S. Constitution:

“The first amendment gives us the right to five freedoms: the freedom of press, freedom of assembly, freedom of petition, freedom of speech, and freedom of religion. That’s a radical part of our Constitution… it gives us five options for the work we need to do in the world right now.”

HKS PolicyCast is the official podcast of Harvard Kennedy School, featuring weekly interviews with scholars and leading practitioners in public policy, leadership, and international affairs. It is hosted by filmmaker, writer, and policy wonk Matt Cadwallader.