Thousands of women marched through central London to Trafalgar Square on International Women’s Day, calling for an end to violence against women and girls.
The Million Women Rise march moved through Oxford Street with drums, chants and banners before crowds gathered in Trafalgar Square for a rally.
The organisation, a Black and global majority-led grassroots movement, has held the annual event since 2008.
This year’s march carried a clear message: violence against women remains widespread, and campaigners say political promises have still not been matched by the action or funding needed to protect women properly.
Million Women Rise is calling for urgent action to tackle male violence, alongside greater investment in specialist support services such as refuges, rape crisis centres and other independent women-led spaces.
The demonstration came against a stark national backdrop.
On March 12, the names of 19 women believed to have been killed by their sons in the past year were read out in Parliament, after research found that nearly one in five women killed by men since the previous International Women’s Day were suspected victims of matricide.
And it’s in the figures where the scale of the crisis is underlined. Nearly one in three women in England and Wales have experienced domestic abuse since the age of 16, ONS reported.
Police chiefs said in 2024 that around one in 12 women each year are victims of offences including stalking, harassment, sexual assault and domestic abuse.
Organisers said the march was about solidarity, visibility and demanding change that lasts.
Featured image credit: Daisy Redhead
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