Thousands of demonstrators gathered in cities across the United States Sunday for a second day of Women’s Marches, calling for equality and respect while urging supporters to make their voices heard by voting in this year’s midterm elections.
Sunday’s marches were held one year from the day hundreds of thousands of women, donning pink hats, took to the streets of Washington in a stunning display of resistance to President Donald Trump, whose administration many feared could threaten women’s rights.
Marches were scheduled to take place in Las Vegas, Seattle, Miami, Phoenix and many other cities across the country and around the world.
The demonstrations came one day after hundreds of thousands of men, women and children took to the streets in Washington, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles and other cities Saturday on the one-year anniversary of Trump’s inauguration.
This year, attendees are hoping their voices can generate concrete action at the ballot box.
Kari Whaley, 30, brought her 8-year-old son to Sunday’s march in Orlando.
“I did not march last year,” Whaley told CNN, but “I’m marching this year to empower women to go to the polls in this midterm election.”
Hollie S. Chambers marched in Miami, carrying a sign that said, “A woman’s place is in the revolution!”
This year’s march was Chambers’ first, she told CNN via Instagram. “I recently moved to Florida from NJ,” Chambers said, “and wanted to get started in advocacy in my new community.”
Ellen Bowen participated in her second march this year, also in Miami. But it was her first in the United States, she said. Last year, she was in Toronto “as I couldn’t bear being in the USA on Inauguration Day.”
Kelley Robinson, Planned Parenthood’s national organizing director, told CNN on Saturday that many of the women who marched last year have been inspired to run for office themselves.
“It’s a time where we’re not just showing up — folks are saying that, ‘Hey, we actually need to be sitting in those chairs,'” Robinson said. “You know, so everyone who was out in the airports rallying last year and marching in the streets, many of them are now sitting in state legislatures across the country.
“It’s a powerful moment that we’re in.”
But electoral politics were not the only thing on demonstrators’ minds.
The marches also coincided with the recent #MeToo and Time’s Up movements against sexual assault and harassment. Demonstrators, equipped with signs, voiced their support for women’s rights and equality and the cultural shift that has rocked numerous industries and communities in the past few months.
“Witnessing the recent rise of the Time’s Up movement has been profoundly inspiring,” said the actress Olivia Wilde at the Los Angeles march on Saturday. “We have shown them that hell hath no fury like a woman underestimated. We have shown them that we are linked, not ranked, and we have shown them that this is just the beginning.”