Women March Across the Country, in Kansas

Kansas was among states around the country, and countries around the world, where women gathered on Saturday to march for women’s rights.

Wearing pink, pointy-eared “pussyhats” to mock the new president, hundreds of thousands of women massed in the nation’s capital and cities around the globe Saturday to send Donald Trump an emphatic message that they won’t let his agenda go unchallenged over the next four years. The hats were a message of female empowerment aimed squarely at Trump’s crude boast about grabbing women’s genitals.

In Kansas, participants gathered at the south-steps plaza of the State Capitol. Guest speakers and presenters included Kansas legislators, advocates, and musicians from across the state. It ended with a march around the Capitol grounds

The idea for the women’s march took off after a number of women posted on social media in the hours after Trump’s election about the need to mobilize. Hundreds of groups quickly joined the cause, pushing a wide range of causes, including abortion rights, gun control, climate change and immigrant rights.

While the march organizers’ “mission and vision” statement never mentions Trump and stresses broad themes, including the message that “women’s rights are human rights,” the unifying factor among those turning out appeared to be a loathing for the new president and dismay that so much of the country voted for him.