ABSTRACT
The January 21, 2017 Women’s March, held in Washington, D.C. after the presidential inauguration was the largest protest event in United States history. The Women’s March presents an interesting dilemma for the study of argumentation in protest as it represents a single event within a network of protests across time and place, serving a multiplicity of concerns related to women, rather than one flagship issue. Collective rhetoric in the 2017 Utah State Women’s March functioned in three ways: formation of the network through vocal engagement, solidification of the argument, and mobilization of the collective. Despite the alternative date, the Women’s March on the Utah State Capitol still shared a name with the global network of Women’s March protests and invoked shared arguments of unity with the national and global networks of women. While the Women’s March is undeniably a singular event, the larger goal of the collective action is to reinforce collective consciousness around women’s issues at large.
