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Marching Forward: Women’s History Month, Black Opps Data and More.
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Women’s History Month is a moment to recognize what women have always known: progress is never given, it is continuously built, protected, and fought for, again and again.
From organizing movements to leading boardrooms, women have driven equity forward despite real structural barriers, often without the recognition or resources they deserve. That fight is not a story of our past, but something that is happening right now.
The reversal of Roe v. Wade in 2022 didn’t just end a precedent — it opened the door to sweeping restrictions on bodily autonomy and reproductive healthcare access that continue to expand today. Paid leave remains a corporate privilege rather than a national guarantee. The pay gap isn’t closing — it’s growing. And layoffs are further accelerating the damage. Across recent waves of job cuts, women have been pushed out at disproportionate rates, with women of color absorbing the heaviest losses. Economic disenfranchisement isn’t a slow drift. It’s an avalanche. The erosion of hard-fought progress is happening on every front. Simultaneously. Deliberately.
What the hard-fought wins of the past remind us is that durable progress requires durable power. It must be continuously renewed and fiercely protected.
At HIT Strategies, we believe women’s perspectives — especially women of color and younger women — must be centered in the research, strategies, and narratives that guide this work. Women’s History Month is both a celebration and an urgent call to action. Honoring the women who came before us means investing in the data and insights that ensure women today and the women of tomorrow are not just heard, but protected.
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Black Opps: Turning Insights Into Action
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What the Black Opps Project is Telling Us
Last month, we made the case for why understanding Black political disengagement is critical in this moment. This month, we turn to what the data is showing and what it means for reigniting participation and rebuilding trust ahead of November’s midterms.
The Black Opps research makes one thing clear: Black voters are not disengaged, they are navigating a landscape shaped by economic pressure, skepticism about impact, and questions around leadership and safety. While many are experiencing direct harm from current policies, participation remains uneven, with a smaller segment driving most visible forms of public resistance and a larger group of Black voters who are open to resisting, but need to see the leadership that can provide a roadmap to tangible political outcomes.
The opportunity is real, but only if funders, organizers, and political leaders meet this moment with the right approach. A meaningful share of Black voters is ready to be mobilized. Reaching them requires four things:
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Connecting economic realities to political choices.
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Showing that collective action delivers real results.
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Making participation feel both effective and worthwhile.
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Developing leadership that can renew excitement and rebuild trust.
Since starting in summer of 2025, the Black Opps Coalition has conducted several focus groups, polls, and AI content testing with Black voters to understand the barriers that prevent their resistance, the motivations that would increase their resistance, and the actions that we can mobilize them to take now – to increase the likelihood that they vote later.
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Black Opps: Media Spotlight
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The Black Opps project continues to break through on a national scale with the latest feature in Bloomberg. Along with editorial coverage, in recent media appearances, CEO and Co-Founder, Terrance Woodbury underscores how coordinated digital ecosystems are influencing what reaches Black audiences, what earns trust, and how narratives take hold.
These conversations reinforce a core finding: misinformation is not abstract, it is actively shaping perceptions, participation, and trust. Black Opps brings needed clarity to this landscape while pointing toward what it will take to build credible, community-centered channels that meet Black voters where they are and move them to action. For formal inquiries about Black Opps and what’s to come, fill out this form.
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What We Are Reading at HIT
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What 81,000 People Want From AI
Anthropic’s large-scale interview project offers a rare, qualitative look at how people actually experience AI in their daily lives. Across 80,000+ conversations, users describe AI less as a replacement for work and more as a collaborator, while still raising real concerns around trust, accuracy, and long-term impact.
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Why “Affordability” Is Taking Over Politics
“Affordability” has quickly become the defining economic frame in politics, cutting across party lines and resonating more than traditional terms like inflation. The shift reflects a deeper disconnect between improving macroeconomic indicators and how strained voters actually feel day to day.
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Young Women, the Economy, and Politics
Young women are emerging as a key economic and political constituency, navigating rising costs, shifting expectations, and evolving political identities. Their views reflect both economic anxiety and a demand for policies that directly address financial stability and opportunity.
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Voter Crackdowns Reach College Campuses
Efforts to tighten voting rules are increasingly showing up on college campuses, raising new questions about access, enforcement, and who gets to participate. The trend highlights how election policy debates are playing out in real time among younger voters.
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The Trans Rights Backlash Is Real, The Argument
Public support for trans rights may be softening even as Democrats see electoral gains, pointing to a growing disconnect between political outcomes and cultural attitudes. Shifts in opinion on high-salience issues are creating new challenges for advocates and reshaping how these debates play out in the broader political landscape.
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Podcast Drop: Charting the Way Forward
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HIT Strategies’ Founding Partner Terrance Woodbury joins Way to Win’s podcast to share insights from Black Opps, breaking down the “hunger for action” among Black voters and what it means for how campaigns need to show up, engage, and mobilize moving forward.
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Substack Highlights: Latino Voters & Black Opps with April Ryan and Joy-Ann Reid.
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This week, Senior Analyst, Dr. Kim Cárdenas will be publishing her second piece on Latino voters. This piece will be analyzing the recent Latino turnout from last month’s primaries and what we can anticipate for the midterms. Be sure to subscribe to our Substack to have her piece straight to your inbox.
This month, Terrance Woodbury made his debut Substack appearance, joining April Ryan on The Contrarian and then joined Joy-Ann Reid’s Joy’s House for an exclusive live conversation with Terrance. Both interviews were in depth conversations about Black Opps, different modes of resistance, and voter trends.
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 Partner with HIT.
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HIT Strategies is proud to work with advocacy groups, campaigns, brands, and organizations shaping the future. If your team is looking for reliable, culturally competent insights this year, we’d love to talk.
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Want to Stay Connected?
Follow us or reach out directly to learn more about our services and impact.
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