A number of major cities in the United States were filled with hundreds of thousands of women on Saturday, deemed a women’s march protesting against President Donald Trump only a day after the presidential inauguration. Many of these women took to the streets with their partners and children, and followed the lead of female activists who were fired up by Trump’s beliefs and behavior that they consider as misogynistic.
All in all, the women’s march in the U.S and around the world drew in approximately 5 million protesters. Such number went beyond the organizers’ expectations; these intense demonstrations went on to underline the displeasure over Trump’s responses and approaches toward various groups, such as Muslims, Mexican immigrants and climate change advocates, among others.
The initial main event of the women’s protests- a Women’s March to be held in Washington- attracted larger crowds compared to the prior turnout to Trump’s inauguration day at the U.S. Capitol. Although no exact numbers of the turnout were recorded, the total of protesters at the women’s march undoubtedly went beyond the estimated 200,000 participants. These marchers swarmed into downtown Washington along the White House and the National Mall.
Many protesters at the women’s march also sported “pussy hats" that can be associated with Trump’s comments in a video released prior to the 2016 presidential election. In the clip, he boasted about being able to easily grab the genitals of a woman. Aside from Washington, even more protesters joined the women’s march in Los Angeles, which could have had 500,000 or more joining the demonstration, and New York that had roughly 600,000 marchers.
"The scary thing about Donald Trump is that now all the Republicans are acquiescing to him and things are starting to become normalized," New York protester Megan Schulz said. "We can't have our president talking about women the way he does."
Protesters in Boston, Chicago and Denver also swarmed the streets and turned the women’s march event into a large rally instead of a parade. With such public outpour against Trump, this is the first time that a new president has had to deal with opposition during his first day in office.
It came as a surprise to many in the U.S. and around the world that Trump gained victory over Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who made history by becoming the first woman to be nominated for U.S. president by a major political party in the country.
