Women Show Solidarity for the Second Straight Year
Year 1, 2017, women protested the political erosion of women’s issues during President Trump’s inauguration. Year 2, 2018, Women’s March demonstrators convened, marched, and rallied on Saturday in cities throughout the country to challenge the policies of this presidential administration and the social environment in respect to women.
A striking issue was the abuse of women by those in power, hotly displayed as the #MeToo movement. Progressive women aspire to build on the movement towards electoral victories in this year’s midterm elections.
According to Mayor Bill de Blasio. over 200,000 protesters attended the march in New York on Saturday, Mayor Eric Garcetti’s of Los Angeles estimate was 600,000 in attendance. Organizers of the Chicago march estimated 300,000. Thousands also turned out in Washington, Philadelphia, Austin, San Francisco, Oakland and hundreds of other cities and towns across the country and the world.
A number of speakers addressed Women’s March participants with motivating speeches urging women to focus on Democrats winning races in the upcoming midterm elections.
“I’m an activist and an artist and I’m here to fight for women’s equality and equality for all minorities,” said Michelle Hartney, 39, of Chicago, who said she attended the Women’s March in Washington last year.
Michelle Bloom, 52, a Washington teacher, held a sign as her daughter, Jenna, 14, repaired hers with duct tape. She had made it in her mother’s classroom Friday, tracing the hand prints of her classmates who couldn’t make it to the march.
In Rome, Italy women applauded the movement against sexual assault of women.
Enthusiasm and assertion towards improving the rights of women filled the air as the 2nd Women’s Movement made itself known on Saturday, January 20th.
For more on the 2018 Women’s March, see The New York Times: Women’s March 2018: Protesters Take to the Streets for the Second Straight Year, the source of this information.
