Women around the world send a message to Trump

City officials said they were expecting half a million people to join the protest in Washington alone.

Women with pink hats and signs begin to gather in Washington, DC on January 21, 2017 as part of a day of worldwide protests against the policies of the new US president Donald Trump. Jose Luis Magana Show more

Washington // Hundreds of thousands of women staged protests in America's capital and cities across the country and the world on Saturday in a show of defiance against Donald Trump a day after he took office as president of the United States.
City officials said they were expecting half a million people to join the protest in Washington, doubling their estimates as women arrived by bus and overcrowded subway trains to rally on Independence Avenue, at the heart of the US capital.
The turnout for the Women's March on Washington was thought to have eventually matched - and even surpassed - the 800,000 that the District of Columbia officials estimated attended Mr Trump's inauguration on Friday.
The gathering crowds created a sea of pink hats and brought the city to a standstill in an unprecedented display of opposition to a new president. In Washington and Chicago, the crowds grew so vast that marching became impossible.
America Ferrera, the actress, addressed the crowd gathered in Washington.
"We reject the demonisation of our Muslim brothers and sisters," she said. "We condemn the systemic murder and incarceration of our black brothers and sisters. We will not ask our LGBT families to go backwards. We will not go from being a nation of immigrants to a nation of ignorance.
"We won't build walls and we won't see the worst in each other."
Filmmaker Michael Moore and actress Scarlet Johannsson were among those who addressed the crowd in Washington.
The women's march received support from Hillary Clinton, the candidate Mr Trump defeated. She thanked the protesters on Twitter "for standing, speaking and marching for our values." Several Democratic members of Congress attended the Washington march. President Trump also got a glimpse of the protesters from the window of his limousine as he returned to the White House from a prayer service.
Some marchers wore "Nasty woman" T-shirts, quoting one of Mr Trump's own comments about women.
They carried banners that covered the full range of concerns about the new president, from defending ObamaCare and abortion rights to protecting the environment.
Many had never marched before but said they were intent on showing the world - and perhaps reminding themselves - that "Trump was not America," as one put it. The result was as much a celebration of diversity as a display of opposition.
Temple McDowell, a former Miss Utah who alleged Mr Trump kissed her without consent in the 1997 Miss USA pageant, explained that she wanted to stand up for victims of abuse everywhere.
"It's not right for anyone, let alone the president, to speak about nor treat women in the way that he has.," she said.
Organisers of the Saturday protests said women were gathering for nearly 700 sister marches, in every American state and on every continent, including Antarctica, where a group of 30 women and supportive men from an expedition ship staged a march in Paradise Bay - accompanied by gentoo penguins.
Linda Zunas, an analytics and market researcher from Oakland, California, who organised the Antarctica march said, " I spent a month after the election mourning the impending damage to the earth that will be done. I felt I needed o do something to be part of the global movement."
The actual marching had to be brief to limit any environmental damage but there was a note of humour injected into the serious message, with placards saying, "Penguins for peace' and "Cormorants for climate".
In New York, women, men and children of all ages massed on the streets chanting anti-Trump slogans. Jeanette Lee, a mother of three daughters, took an hour-long train ride to join the march in Manhattan.
"It's important to be here because of my daughters. I want to teach them that if they want change, they need to be out there making that change."
At 71, Valerie Levenstein is a veteran of many political marches. "I am old but I want to make sure that young women and men realise this is their country and future, and it may have been a little apathy on their part that allowed for this election to go this way," she said. "Trump is the president and it is over now but the congress and the senate will vote for his proposals which are odious. Coming out in protest is going to make the congressmen and senators who are up for election in just two years pay attention to these people and their demands,."
From around the world they came, many wearing pink hats which have become a symbol of their protest.
As the sun moved westward around the globe, women gathered, united in their disapproval of the new US president his more distasteful utterances, including disparaging comments from his campaign about the disabled, ethnic minorities and women.
Worldwide some 673 "sister marches" were planned for Saturday, in addition to the protest in Washington DC, with more than two million expected to attend. Although protests at inaugurations in the United States are not uncommon, only the inauguration of Richard Nixon in 1968 - as the United States fought an unpopular war in Vietnam - has drawn such a strong reaction worldwide.
The day of protest began in New Zealand, where 2,000 people marched in four cities. In Sydney, Australia's largest city, 3,000 people - women and men - marched to the US consulate, bearing placards with slogans such as, "Feminism is my Trump card" and "Fight like a girl".
"We're marching to protest the hate speech, the hateful rhetoric, the misogyny, the bigotry, the xenophobia and we want to present a united voice with women around the globe," organiser Mindy Freiband said. Another 5,000 rallied in Melbourne.
In Tokyo, American expatriates and Japanese marched together. "Trump presidency gets my blood boiling ... Everything we value could be gone. It's time to speak your mind and to do our best to salvage the values we cherish in America," said Bill Scholer, an art teacher.
In Manila, they started even earlier, rallying for an hour outside the US embassy on Friday, inauguration day. American expatriates in Yangon, Myanmar, held a "solidarity picnic".
In Prague, hundreds braved the freezing weather in the Czech capital to gather in a busy city square, waving portraits of president Trump and Russia's Vladimir Putin and banners that read, "This is just the beginning".
They marched in London, Berlin, Copenhagen and in Paris, where thousands, including many expat American workers and students, marched to the iconic Eiffel Tower, singing and carrying posters saying, "We have our eyes on you Mr. Trump," and "With our sisters in Washington."
Anne Tiracchia, from Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, was on holiday in Paris visiting her son. "It's important because Trump wants to destroy 50 years of progress, he wants to go back to smoke coming out of factories and women staying home and having babies," she said. "He won't change. He doesn't care. But we have to show we don't agree with him".
In Concord, New Hampshire, novelist Jodi Picoult told the crowd, "We in New Hampshire are not in the habit of going in reverse. We have the backs of those who are less fortunate - who may be struggling for health care, for environmental rights, for racial equality, for a fair wage, for justice. We are in this together. And we know that change does not come from the top down, but from the bottom up."
* With additional reporting by Zainab Sultan in New York