Photos: the 2018 Women’s March weekend focused on power and politics

Power and politics were top of mind this weekend as hundreds of thousands of people gathered in major cities and small towns around the world to march for gender equality under the banner of the Women’s March while also protesting the one-year anniversary of President Donald Trump’s inauguration.

In Las Vegas, the organizers of last year’s inaugural Women’s March held a Power to the Polls rally, kicking off a year-long push to get women into political office and to register a million new voters. But the focus on politics wasn’t just felt in Vegas — marchers in cities across the country held signs promising sweeping changes for the upcoming midterm elections and criticizing Trump administration policies such as immigration and reproductive health care access. All of this took place, of course, in the beginning of a government shutdown over the federal budget and immigration reform.

It was inevitable the march would also include a focus on the ongoing reckoning with sexual assault and harassment that has dominated the news in recent months. Actress and director Asia Argento received a hero’s welcome at the march in Rome, after facing public derision when she came forward accusing producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault last year.

Women at the Los Angeles event brandished signs declaring “Me Too,” as celebrity speakers like Natalie Portman, Viola Davis, and Scarlett Johansson, and others affiliated with the Time’s Up initiative to tackle gender inequality in workplaces, spoke out about their own experiences and outlined the next steps for tamping down on harassment in the entertainment industry and elsewhere.