“Welcome to your first day, we will not go away!”

On Friday, January 20, 2017, the 45th President, Donald J. Trump, was sworn in. On Saturday, January 21, 2017, less than 24 hours later, hundreds of thousands of people all across the world joined together to march for women’s rights.

With chants like “Welcome to your first day, we will not go away!”, “My body, my choice,” and “Women’s rights are human rights,” it is easy to see what they are marching for. “In light of recent events and changes in administration, people felt that needed to take a stance on already prevalent issues and issues they feel are going to arise, such as reproductive rights and equal pay for equal work,” Lily Blaustein, ‘19, summed up about the whole point of the March. With the defunding of Planned Parenthood being only one example, as well as Trump’s character itself, women fear that their rights will be neglected. “The March was aimed to create awareness amongst our new government regarding women’s rights, which appear to be overlooked by President Trump and his administration,” Molly Murray, a sophomore at Lane Tech, claimed.

Humayra Munshi, also a human rights supporter, said “It was a march to show Donald Trump how many lives he’d be negatively affecting with the types of legislature he wants to pass that are against women.” And it was as, according to ABC News and USA Today, over 600 sister marches were planned all across the world and totaled up to over two million people in attendance of the march. Between 440,000 and 500,000 people protested in Washington D.C. alone, not to mention the other protests that occurred in other cities, both in other states America and in the 80+ other countries.

Sister Marches Locations

It is truly an inspiring thing to see so many people in some many different places join together for one cause. This was not a one-time thing; there may not be any more marches planned in the near future, but that does not mean women’s rights supporters will be silent for the time being. Instead, in the words of Gloria Steinem in her speech at the march in Washington, they are going to “…Decide what we’re gonna do tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow and we’re never turning back.”