Teresa Shook

Teresa Shook (born 1956)[1] is a retired American lawyer from Indiana who now lives in Hawaii.[2] She is best known as the founder of the Women's March.[3]

The Women's March idea arose soon after the election of Donald Trump to the presidency of the United States in 2016.[2] A friend had signed Shook up for "Pantsuit Nation", a Facebook page created to rally Hillary Clinton supporters, and Shook went there to find like-minded people. She posted on that page the statement: "We have to march."[4] After eliciting a response, Shook subsequently created a Facebook event for a march in Washington, D.C., following the inauguration. Meanwhile, Bob Bland, a mother living in New York City, also created an event. Within a single day hundreds of thousands of individuals were "attending" the march's Facebook event. This surge in interest was a catalyst for creating the organization that led to the 2017 Women's March.[3] "I didn’t have a plan or a thought about what would happen," Shook told Reuters. "i just kept saying, I think we should march." I was in such shock and disbelief that this type of sentiment could win,” said Shook, a retired lawyer from Indiana with four grandchildren. “We had to let people know that is not who were are."[2]

In November 2018, Shook criticized the leadership of the Women's March national organization as being "anti-Semitic and anti-LGBTQIA rights". Specifically mentioning Linda Sarsour, Carmen Perez, Tamika Mallory and Bland, she called for them all to step down.[5]

  1. ^ "Teresa Shook, a 60 years old grandmother, at the origin of the Women's March in Washington DC". Silver Economy. January 25, 2017. Retrieved December 20, 2019.
  2. ^ a b c "Hawaii grandma's plea launches women's march in Washington". Reuters. December 5, 2016. Archived from the original on December 5, 2016. Retrieved December 20, 2019.
  3. ^ a b Stein, Perry (January 31, 2017). "The woman who started the Women's March with a Facebook post reflects: 'It was mind-boggling'". The Washington Post. Retrieved December 20, 2019.
  4. ^ Scozzaro, Carrie (March 7, 2019). "Women's March founder Teresa Shook shares her unlikely path to activism as she visits Spokane". Inlander. Retrieved February 23, 2021.
  5. ^ Kelly, Caroline (November 19, 2018). "Founder of the Women's March calls for co-chairs to step down". CNN. Retrieved January 19, 2019.