As the Women's March captured the attention of the nation's media over the weekend, especially in respect to the attendees who focused their anger, justifiably, against the Trump administration, some organisers saw the response of white women in attendance, many of them to the left of Trump's fawning conservative base, to have been out of touch with wider messaging.

In what may be assumed to have been a warped show of solidarity, someone put a "pink pussy hat" atop the statue of Harriet Tubman, black abolitionist and anti-slavery resistance heroine. The reaction to this was swift, with one side characterising the move as ahistorical at best, and incredibly off the mark, while another side considered it no big deal. The issue here is that white women, specifically, have yet to reckon with their past, and how the reverberations from this past has allowed them to tokenise non-white women, especially black women.

A demonstrator wears a Statue of Liberty crown at the Women's March on New York last weekend. Credit:Jeenah Moon

Author Nadra Nittle described the Tubman statue incident as being endemic of a wider issue: that women of colour are "relegated to the sidelines", and their struggles are ignored or used as symbolic mechanisms to further the status and politics of white women. While Trump's right wing fan base is undoubtedly accommodating of his enthusiastic incitement, racism, and callous disregard for women, it's necessary to acknowledge how the liberal establishment has failed women, and to further analyse what has catalysed the women who vote for him.

Despite Trump's unyielding bigotry—which includes a menacing discourse targeting women—over half of white women, a staggering 53 per cent helped pull his campaign over the finish line. Arguably, the motivations behind this type of political maneuvering are multifaceted, but the central rationale behind advocating on behalf of a man who has been accused of a laundry list of abuses, including the exploitation and abuse of other women, has to do with maintaining a steady hold on power.