Launching A Movement: Hope Holds Power To Enact Change
Rebecca Solnit (R), author and advocate in conversation recently with Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg.
Does hope really spring eternal?
Award-winning author of more than 20 books, Rebecca Solnit has a few things to offer about the possibility of hope and long path of change.
“In this time period,” says Solnit, author of Hope in The Dark, and her most recent, No Straight Road Takes You There, “we are trying to keep hope alive. Change never stops so you do what you can and know you will not fix everything.”
The National Book Award winner, climate and human rights activist told the crowd at the recent Chicago Humanities Festival, “The fact that you can’t save everything does not mean you cannot save anything.”
“The fact that you can’t save everything does not mean you cannot save anything.” @takeleadwomen #culturalchange @ChiHumanities #history ”
Read more in Take The Lead on creating a movement from chaos
In a conversation with Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg, author of the 2022 book, On Repentance and Repair: Making Amends in an Unapologetic World, Solnit writes about the nature of change in culture and communities across history, space, and time. How we regard change can decide the future.
Read more in Take The Lead on hope and movements
“A lot of people are just frozen,” Solnit says. “But a lot of people are becoming unfrozen and it’s exciting.” How people are reacting to the current political climate, she says, “is the biggest coalition we’ve ever seen. It is like building a bonfire; we are piling up the wood.”
At the recent United Nation’s gathering of the Commission on the Status of Women, Sima Bahous, the head of UN Women told the crows that “misogyny is on the rise.” This is prompting action from women across the world to create issue-based movements to foster urgently needed change.
Listen to a Power To You podcast on building movements
A key factor in coalition building is telling stories, Ruttenberg says. “Stories matter always. They shape history—the short and the long version of history.”
“Stories matter always. They shape history—the short and the long version of history. #stories #leadership #createchange #history ”
A 2024 University of Chicago study examines the impact of stories on social movements. “Stories can inspire and propel people’s individual and collective action to unite social movements.” There are “two types of essential social movement stories: individual me and movement we stories. Stories of me are the personal stories of individual changemakers. Stories of we are the stories that these individuals tell about the movement.”
According to Solnit, for instance, the inaccurate representation of stories of women shaped history for centuries. “Women were subordinated for generations with stories of female inferiority,” Solnit says. To make progress, she says, “We don’t just have to make stories, we have to break out of stories.”
Read more in Take The Lead on power of narrative
The movements of civil rights, women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, climate, social justice, criminal justice and so much more have been borne of stories. “We are well into the process of changing stories and we’re in a story battle. But changing the story is the beginning of changing the world.”
In 2023 research published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology, researchers found that stories galvanize people and communities into action, specifically on issues such as climate change. “Our framework identifies the psychological mechanisms that encourage and motivate people, both individually and collectively, to take climate action, thereby contributing to our understanding of how to advance social action and propel a social movement.”
The stories people read, hear, witness people telling and share are key to how movements take shape. Solnit is keenly aware of this trend, and how deliberate intention to share false stories and facts drives people in a manipulated direction.
“Stories are key to how movements take shape. #womensstories #narrative #change @takeleadwomen”
Read more in Take The Lead on importance of women’s stories
The World Economic Forum in its Global Risks Report 2025 recently stated that global disinformation is on of the top three threats on the planet. “Misinformation and disinformation lead the short-term risks and may fuel instability and undermine trust in governance, complicating the urgent need for cooperation to address shared crises.”
In a time of the visceral spread of disinformation, the story conflict fuels culture wars. “Truth and story are not separate,” Solnit says and as always, the reality of whose story gets heard is of primal importance. Throughout history, “Stories that were not white and male were suppressed. Women were cast as manipulative and unreliable,” but that changed with women’s suffrage, the birth of feminism and the #MeToo movement. And all of these movements take time—decades, centuries.
“Disinformation is the source of conflict and shapes ideas for cultural change. @takeleadwomen #popularculture #media ”
In a 2024 Take The Lead event on making movements, was a conversation with Gloria Steinem, co-founder of Ms. Magazine, feminist icon, journalist and social justice activist, Gloria Feldt, co-founder and president of Take The Lead, and Jamia Wilson, author, editor and activist, the idea of an individual’s role in a collective is critical. “A leader is someone who gets stuff done,” Feldt said. “Everybody is a leader from where they are. It is important for women to understand the power they already have.”
While the current culture in the U.S. that seems to be undoing progress and damaging strides made in many social movements, Solnit says it is urgent to see the overview.
“The paths of change are zigzag, long and slow, but beautiful and exciting.”
“The paths of change are zigzag, long and slow, but beautiful and exciting. @leadership #movement @takeleadwomen ”
“The world is not black and white or shades of gray, it’s full of color and complicated. A really good question can open things up. Mystery, magnificence, complexity, uncertainty, unpredictability are part of the magic. The questions can guide us in ways answers don’t.”
Solnit adds, “I am trying to see possibilities in this time period. And trying to keep hope alive. Trying to open up the possibilities, rather than shut them down.”
