In this op-ed, former Texas Senator and founder of Deeds Not Words Wendy Davis explains the impact of the Trump administration on women, one year after the 2016 election.

At the risk of triggering all of our PTSD, I remember the 2016 election like it was yesterday — watching, in disbelief, as the election returns came in. Exhausted after months of endless travel on behalf of Hillary Clinton’s campaign, I had anticipated watching history that night. But I was left numb as the hope and emotion of what I thought would be a pivotal moment in history drained from my body.

We all knew it would be bad — but the reality of this presidential administration is far worse than I'd imagined could be possible. Tragically, many of the harmful actions of this administration have been directly aimed at and have had disastrous impacts on women. I had thought this was the year we'd be celebrating the beginning of the end of gender inequities, under the helm of a woman president who would finally take on (with vigor!) the issues of pay inequality, creating quality child care that's affordable, and family leave. Instead, we find ourselves fighting to tenuously hold on to our reproductive freedoms and the ability to have liberty and agency over our own bodies. I could go on . . . and on . . . and on.

First, we have seen the re-empowerment and legitimization of misogyny, when Trump was elected even after he boasted that he could grab women "by the p*ssy" in tapes that were leaked to the public. We’ve seen a young woman die at the hands of a man aligned with the racist alt-right in Charlottesville, Virginia. We’ve seen an upstanding congressional woman of color ridiculed and demeaned by both President Trump and his chief of staff, General John Kelly. And we’ve watched hard-fought-for Title IX protections decimated while assailants are granted greater legal cover for their actions.

Attempts to defund Planned Parenthood’s contraceptive, cancer-screening, and well-woman care gained new strength with accelerated efforts to ram the defunding through Congress. Central to congressional attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act have been efforts to drive a stake through the heart of Planned Parenthood and to remove the contraceptive coverage mandate for insurers (that last one accomplished by executive order on “religious freedoms” and “employer discretion” just a few weeks ago). We witnessed the confirmation of a new Supreme Court justice whose stance on abortion rights has been questioned, the appointment of a new overseer of the Health and Human Services’s Office of Refugee Resettlement who reportedly "counsels" young women with whom he is tasked with caring, reportedly having taken at least one of them to a “crisis pregnancy center” where she was forced to have an ultrasound, likely so that she could be coerced into changing her mind, according to the ACLU.

Far from losing hope in the face of these anti-woman attacks, though, I have actually been inspired in the days, weeks, months, and year since November 8, 2016. And that inspiration has been provided not by actions at the congressional or executive level, but by the actions of everyday women.

Across the country, through Facebook groups, social settings, and dinner and book clubs, resistance has taken charge. Women have lead and grown groups like Indivisible and Pantsuit Nation. Women filed to run for office in record numbers: Emily’s List, an organization that seeks to elect more pro-choice women to office, reports that they have had more women express an interest in running in this election year than in all the prior years of the organization’s history combined! Other organizations, like She Should Run and Ignite, are seeing incredible interest from young women in running for office. There are more women candidates for 2018 elections, raising more money, and taking on more of the old boys’ clubs in their cities, states, and congressional districts than ever before.