Women's march on Washington: How a march turned into a movement.

On January 21, the day after Trumps inauguration where about 500 000 people attended, about 4.6 million people people showed up to the Women's Solidarity March on Washington in the USA alone. Even millions more internationally. An estimated 250 000 people in Chicago, 700 000 in Los Angeles, 400 000 in New York, 100 000 in London, England, 60 000 in Toronto, and 575 000 or more in Washington D.C.

The Women's March began with the goal of getting more people to show up to protest Trump and his cabinet with their racist, sexist, and borderline fascist policies, than the amount of people that showed up to his inauguration. Needless to say, they reached their goal by a stunningly high margin with the immense numbers of people pushing the boundaries of the streets holding clever and inspiring signs.

People wearing pink pussy hats, and chanting anti-Trump slogans, for example, “build bridges not walls” and “love trumps hate”. More continued protesting in Washington for about a week after the official march, and will continue to send a strong message that we need to continue to fight for Women's rights. As long as someone like Trump has the power to make decisions about women's reproductive rights, racial equality, equal pay, and planned parenthood, we must stand beside the country that we share borders with and continue to fight against his power and policies as much as possible.

In Ottawa, myself and about 7000 other people of all ages, genders, and backgrounds gathered on Elgin street at the Human Rights memorial where there were speeches from various women's rights advocates. We then marched from there down Elgin street, onto Laurier Street and walked all the way down Laurier until Bronson and then all the way up Bronson until the Bronson Centre where there was even more speeches. This event was eye opening and inspiring.