Washington (CNN) One year after women took to the streets in droves to protest President Donald Trump's inauguration, marchers are gathering again in cities across the country and around the world in a sharp rebuke of Trump's presidency and in continuation of a still-growing international movement.

This second year of the Women's March also comes in the middle of the #MeToo movement, which has shed light on sexual misconduct and ushered in social change in a bevy of industries. It also comes months ahead of the midterm elections in the United States, in which progressive women hope to turn their activism into victories at the ballot box.

In Washington, where one year ago hundreds of thousands of women clad in pink hats took to the streets and vowed to resist Trump's presidency, Heather Tucci said she didn't want to stay on the sidelines.

"Before Trump, I was content to sit back and watch the government just go by me. Now I'm not," Tucci, from Harford County, Maryland, told CNN. "It is dire that we do something because it is just ridiculous what is happening to this country, what people think about us around the world and just undermining the basic fundamentals of humanity and the constitution and what democracy should stand for."

A woman lifts her fist while holding a banner during a Women's March demonstration in Rome on Saturday.

Kelley Robinson, Planned Parenthood's national organizing director, told CNN that it's "nothing new for women to be involved in elections," but said that many women who marched last year had been spurred to run for office themselves

Read More