The Women's March on Washington DC arose from the feelings of discontent felt by many over statements made by then President-Elect Donald Trump both in his past and during his campaign. Their outrage was felt over his comments on the treatment of women and other groups of people. The day after Trump was elected, Hawaiian Teresa Shook made the initial call for a Women's March on the social media platform Facebook. Taking up that call were Tamika Mallory, Carmen Perez, Linda Sarsour, and Bob Bland. These four became the co-chairs that brought together the March on Washington DC. Including this march, there were over 650 marches that day with over 4 million participants (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/02/07/this-is-what-we-learned-by-counting-the-womens-marches).

The Southern Illinois Women's March was spawned as a sister march to the March on Washington DC and took place on the same day, January 21, 2017. The march was held in Carbondale, IL. It was primarily organized by Kathryn Neely. It had an estimated attendance of 2,500 people and was considered to be one of the largest peaceful demonstrations Carbondale has ever seen.

Dr. Courtney Kisat is an Assistant Professor of History and the Secondary Social Studies Education Program Coordinator at Southeast Missouri State University. Dr. Kisat has been teaching at Southeast since 2014. She has made several publications during this time, including: "'Completely Sold on Birth Control:'Rural Extension Work of the Kentucky Birth Control League, 1933-1942,” published in the Kentucky Register in the Fall of 2018 (https://semo.edu/history-anthropology/faculty/kisat.html).