Women's Marches Around Aus (and the World) Protest Trump's First Year As President

It's been an important year in the history of feminist movements.

Yesterday marked the first-year anniversary of U.S. President Donald Trump's inauguration, but it also marked one year (okay, technically 364 days) since the first Women's March in Washington.

The 2017 Women's March is still considered the largest single-day protest in U.S. history with about half-a-million attending in Washington, D.C. and around five million worldwide in sister marches. It's no real surprise that one year later, the marches still drew huge crowds and a lot of celebrity support.

In Australia, marches were held in the CBDs of Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne. They, however, didn't solely focus on Trump and his tumultuous presidency. After a year full of movements like #metoo and Time's Up, protesters marched to continue demanding social and political change for gender equality.

“Having passion is not enough. We need to take action” #womensmarch2018 #WomensMarchBrisbane pic.twitter.com/jM8zuYGG5o

— Rebecca Shaw (@rebeccah_shaw) January 21, 2018

In the U.S., Scarlett Johansson took to the stage to call out James Franco, who, despite publicly supporting the Time's Up campaign, was recently accused of sexually harassing five women.

Pretty sure Scarlett Johansson just got a pointed dig at James Franco, who has been accused of exploiting his young, female acting students. The accusations were prompted by his wearing a Time’s Up pin at the Golden Globes. pic.twitter.com/ZkdDexPr2Q

— Ricardo Lopez (@rljourno) January 20, 2018

And while powerful speeches were made all around the world, Trump took to Twitter to remind everyone that he had completely missed the point.

Let's hope 2018 sees these important movements continue to work against the systems that prevent positive change. 

Photo: YouTube (Women's March Sydney)