Philadelphia 1997 → Chicago 2026
Nearing three decades on, we open the microphone — not a march, a national dialogue.
The Committee to Commemorate the 30th Anniversary of the Million Woman March — a project of The Institute on Economic Apartheid, a nonpartisan, nonprofit think tank that promotes public dialogue — launches a series of town hall open-mic dialogues on affordability, safety, healthcare, childcare and housing, and how race, sex, gender, and socioeconomic status shape rights, access, and privilege.
The inaugural town hall begins in
Why now
In 1997, a million women gathered to be counted. As we approach the 30th anniversary, we convene to be heard — in dialogue, on the record.
The cost of simply living has become its own form of exclusion. Rent, care, medicine, and safety are too often sorted along lines of race, sex, gender, and class — a pattern we call economic apartheid, one that shapes who gets to stay, thrive, and belong. Our role is to understand and document it.
This commemoration is not a backward glance, and it is not a march. It is a survey of the present, gathered through dialogue from the ground up — testimony by testimony, block by block. We collect the data, as a think tank does, so that everyday Americans and the coalitions that serve them are better informed.
What we are listening for
Six pressures shaping everyday life.
Affordability
The everyday cost of living — and who is being priced out of their own communities.
Housing Costs
Rent, ownership, and displacement: who gets to stay, and who is pushed out.
Healthcare
Access, quality, and the cost of staying well across race, sex, and class.
Childcare
The care economy and the impossible math facing working families.
Safety
What it takes to feel secure — in our homes, streets, and institutions.
Rights & Access
How race, sex, gender, and status shape rights, access, and privilege.
The inaugural town hall
October 25, 2026 · Chicago
An open-mic dialogue where residents take the microphone and the record. Come to speak, come to listen — every voice is testimony.
Build it with us
A coalition to survey affordability from the ground up.
We are convening businesses, agencies, organizations, jurisdictions, individuals, and institutions to gather boots-on-the-ground evidence of how economic apartheid shapes residents’ rights, access, and privileges — research that helps independent entities make better-informed decisions.
Become a member