The World's 50 Greatest Leaders

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34
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Tamika Mallory, Linda Sarsour, Bob Bland, and Carmen Perez

Four co-organizers of the Women's March on Washington, from left: Tamika Mallory, a gun control advocate and board member of The Gathering for Justice; Linda Sarsour, the executive director of the Arab American Association of New York; Bob Bland, the chie
Four co-organizers of the Women's March on Washington, from left: Tamika Mallory, a gun control advocate and board member of The Gathering for Justice; Linda Sarsour, the executive director of the Arab American Association of New York; Bob Bland, the chief executive of Manufacture New York; and Carmen Perez, executive director of The Gathering for Justice, in New York, Jan. 4, 2017. Conversations surrounding the march on Jan. 21, the day after Donald Trump's inauguration, are alienating some women, even as organizers stress unity and inclusion. (Todd Heisler/The New York Times)Todd Heisler—The New York Times/Redux
  • Title
    National Cochairs
  • Affiliation
    The Women's March on Washington

Women’s issues, from equal pay to reproductive rights, have long been central to political debate. When Donald Trump won the presidential election on a platform that many people believed would roll back those rights, Mallory, Sarsour, Perez, and Bland wanted to send the message that these issues were nonnegotiable. Veteran civil rights activists, the four were able to coordinate the Women’s March on Washington in barely two months. Their original 250,000-attendee estimate was eclipsed by a crowd that reached nearly half a million. Add simultaneous marches held in hundreds of cities worldwide, and the total approached 5 million—a testament to the leadership potential of vibrant, diverse, and self-organizing groups. To capitalize, the cochairs launched 10 Actions/100 Days as a hub through which citizens could find nearby protests, strikes, and other events to sustain the fire they had started.

 

“The Women’s March stands out as a remarkable example of leadership that eschews ‘command and control’ in favor of ‘connect and collaborate,’ two-way over one-way conversation, and wielding moral over formal authority.”—Dov Seidman, CEO, LRN and author of “How”