PHILADELPHIA _ A tradition inspired by disappointment over the election of Donald Trump to the U.S. presidency stepped off this morning on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway for the fourth year in a row in a presidential election year in which women are once again vying to be the first to occupy the Oval Office..
While participants said the estimated thousands joining in the Women's March on Philadelphia seemed fewer than last year and certainly down from the 50,000 attracted to the first in 2017, the day after Trump's inauguration, the mood was characteristically enthusiastic, determined, and supportive.
Yet, presidential politics was not the only motivation for those who walked from Logan Circle to the Art Museum on a frigid, snowy morning that rendered ink pens useless and cell phones unreliable. The theme of this year's event, which is separately run from the Women's March in Washington, was "The Year of the Woman." Marchers spoke of many issues relevant to them.
LaToia Horace, 25, from Woodbury, Gloucester County, braved the unpleasant elements for her first Women's March to push for equal rights.
"Stop dictating our bodies," she said. "It's a great time to be a woman. This is just the year to not worry about having a seat at the table and to make our own."
Said her friend Nakera Pierce, 25, also from Woodbury: "There's feminism and there's minority feminism. We're black and were women too. We're fighting for equality on both fronts."
Nathalie Darden, who said she also is from South Jersey but would not say where, kept warm in a knitted pink hat _ the garb of the first Women's March that is not nearly as ubiquitous this year.
"I'm here for equal rights for women. Equal rights for the LGBT community is flip-flopping right now. And we're here for equal pay," she said. "I worked as a civil engineer and I know I wasn't making the same pay then."
Allyson Ross of Paoli, attending her third Women's March, is "terrified" about the prospect of Trump being reelected.
"I can't even fathom four more years of this," she said.
On her list of concerns is racism, misogyny, climate change, education, and student debt.
"The cool thing is we're all here with different things," Ross said. "We're all here together because we realize there is the common good."
Libby Madarasz, 56, of Exton, said the significance of this year's presidential election cannot be overstated.
"I think it's the most important election of our lifetime," she said. "Everyone said give him a chance and maybe he'll rise to the level. But he hasn't. It's all about corporate profits with him."
The march got started at 10 a.m., just as snow started to fall. As participants reached the Art Museum, they heard speeches from a variety of guests, among them Mayor Jim Kenney.
Kenney never mentioned Trump but referred to negative events that have silver linings. Among the pluses since Trump took office, he said, were the elections of local Democrats Madeleine Dean, Chrissy Houlahan and Mary Gay Scanlon to Congress, who also attended the march.
Last month, Kenney selected Danielle Outlaw, the police chief of Portland, Ore., as Philadelphia's new police commissioner. She will be the first African American woman in that job.
