Pat Taub
Cecile Richards’ memoir, Make Trouble couldn’t come at a better time. Women across the country are furious with the Trump administration’s attack on women. We can’t stop at being mad. We have to partner our outrage with effective strategies for change. Enter Cecile Richards’ advice honed from decades as an organizer for progressive change and as the 12-year President of Planned Parenthood.
Richards was raised in an activist home where “the dining room table was never for eating but for sorting precinct lists.” Her father, David Richards was a civil rights lawyer and her mother, Ann Richards was a grass roots organizer for social justice causes and later in life, the first female governor of Texas.
Make Trouble is as much a mother-daughter story as it is a handbook for social change. Richards’ memoir is chock full of stories of her feisty mother whose bold run for governor inspired Cecile and whose unwavering support fortified her when she faced her own challenges.
Ann Richards casting her ballot in her 1990 run for governor of Texas–Cecile refers to her mother’s hair as “the Dairy Queen swirl.”
When Planned Parenthood phoned Cecile asking her to interview for the president of their organization, she was plagued with self-doubt. Cecile reached out to Ann who encouraged her daughter to go for the interview, “What’s the worst thing that could happen? You only get one life and this is it.”
Cecile steered her own children to be change agents. When her daughter Hannah was frustrated with her Girl Scout troop that did little more than sell cookies, Cecile approached her, saying, “What if we started our own organization, one where we could do the cool things the Cub Scouts do?’’ Presto, “Future Women Presidents” was born.
Three generations of women movers and shakers: Cecile, her daughter Lily and Ann
Advice included in Make Trouble gleaned from Richard’s days as a grass roots organizer:
Be practical. Set a goal so you can achieve something concrete. In the beginning it’s going to be small wins.
You have to be willing to ask for money. Raising money isn’t about an influx of cash so much as proving that other people support your idea. It’s about building a following.
When you schedule a meeting, always have a room that’s half the size you need, with half the chairs you need, so you can guarantee meetings with standing room only. Getting people in the room is 20 percent of the work; the other 80 percent is having something meaningful for them to do after they walk out the door.
Richards leading a rally to protest Trump’s attempts to defund Planned Parenthood, which were unsuccessful
The best leaders are always searching for new talent and bringing people on board who challenge them to be better.
Stay close to the ground. Remember that you’re never too big of a deal to knock on doors.
Just because someone else hasn’t figured it out yet doesn’t mean you can’t.
From her mother’s campaign for governor Cecile learned that anything is possible if you’re willing to step up and give it a shot. After Ann Richards died in 2006, Cecile took to wearing her mother’s sheriff badge whenever she’s in a tough spot like in 2015 when she had to sit through a hostile five hour Congressional hearing to defend Planned Parenthood.
Cecile Richards testifying at a Congressional hearing in 2015 when Planned Parenthood was unjustly accused of selling off fetal tissue. She’s wearing her mother’s sheriff badge pin.
Cecile remembers her mother telling her, “You could have a job where you make a lot of money, but you will never receive the kind of gratification that you receive from someone who says, “Thank you for helping make my life better.”
The legendary newspaper columnist Molly Ivins was a frequent visitor to the Richards household when Cecile was growing up. Molly taught her, “Since you don’t always win, you’ve got to learn to enjoy just fightin’ the good fight.”
Richards ends her book with the battle cry, “Feminist is not a passive label. It means speaking up and standing up for women everywhere and for yourself. There has never been a better time to become a troublemaker.”
“Doing something, whether it’s showing up at a town hall meeting, getting some friends together to start your own organization, or just refusing to keep quiet about what you believe feels infinitely better than sitting on the sidelines . . . When we raise our voices together, we can shake the status quo to its foundation.”
Onwards!
Women power at the record-setting Women’s March in DC, Jan. 2017
