Women In Los Angeles React To Donald Trump's Election Victory

"I'm feeling a bit of a loss in faith, in humanity and in our ability to elect a competent person in office. I voted for Hillary and I also voted for Bernie Sanders. I do feel that the DNC fucked up for lack of a better term for pushing out Bernie Sanders. I also am a bit peeved at my white male friends who supported Bernie Sanders and chose to abstain or protest vote in this election. I am a little perturbed, even, for those who live in California or New York and did this. It can't really be a statement if you feel safe doing it, and I feel like these are people who will never know what it's like to have to worry about racism, or being deported, or having your body hijacked by the government."

"I can't believe that throughout this entire election cycle, everyone has heard what he's had to say about women and their bodies, and how he expresses himself towards women and he's still been elected. Luckily, with the type of people I associate with, it's probably not gonna affect my immediate daily life. But knowing that it's going to affect so many other people, especially those in the red states, that affects my life in a different way."

"Honestly, I came into tonight thinking we would be announcing the first female president. It looks like that's not happening and it's terrifying. I think there's an underlying sentiment of sexism. I think we're going backwards like 50 years. "

"It's not only about being a woman, but the environmental things he wants to do. He wants to get rid of things we've been fighting for, like protection of the national forest. It also affects me the most as a Hispanic. I have white friends and the first thing they ask me is, am I going to get deported? And I'm just like, no, just because I'm Hispanic doesn't mean I'm not legal here. We've been trying to do so much and he's going to stop us from doing stuff that we actually want to do."

"I'm completely shocked. I feel like an idiot because how could I be so surprised by this? It's true, we shouldn't be surprised because people are dissatisfied and unhappy with the status quo. People see Clinton as this corrupt, monster that they don't understand. They feel that democracy isn't accessible to them and they're reacting."

"As a man or woman, I am deeply concerned. I definitely voted for Hillary. I didn't vote in the last election because I wasn't quite sure where I stood. It was a little bit of me running away from the fact that I didn't have a voice. This time around, I still was troubled to make a decision 100% on either party, but I felt like I had a responsibility to eliminate Trump as president. I'm pretty surprised at the results because I follow social media and even though I know it's such a small fragment of America, it seemed like everyone was on Hillary's side. With technology and the internet having so much influence on people's daily consciousness, we're still somehow left with the most hated man on the internet."

"I've always felt a very specific way, as an ethnic woman, about how the country treats ethnic women. For a long time , we've been saying this country is not as progressive as we think we are so this isn't completely surprising in that way. It is heartbreaking nonetheless and scary. As an Indigenous youth, I'm Native American, and we've gone through a lot of ups and downs. I'm wearing my tribal stone and calling on my ancestors right now. They've gone through so much and I don't know what I'm going to do tomorrow if Trump wins. I haven't been this scared in a very long time. It's a really big deal as a woman, for a lot of reasons. This man truly does not respect women. But clearly, the country doesn't either."

"I feel very nervous. I am not looking forward to seeing how this affects me when I try to go to doctors and when I try to make decisions about my body. It's not even a matter anymore of how I'm going to pay for it. It's whether I can get things done to me that I might want to get done in the future. It makes me nervous because that's a four-year-long consequence that we're going to have to deal with."

"Like many people, we want to feel safe and good so we surround ourselves with people who provide confirmation. We talk to a lot of democrats, but we don't really talk to Republicans so this has been a good wake up call. Even if Trump wins, I'm sort of optimistic that the Democrats would want to mobilize more or do more. I didn't do any phone calls or anything like that and I'm starting to think twice about having not done that. I took it for granted."

"It's definitely concerning knowing that a man who is so against women is pretty much poisoning a lot of people's minds and making them feel like women can be destructive to America. I know a lot of people are joking and saying they're going to leave America to go to Canada. But it's sad because this is the country many people want to come to for many reasons and to just leave it, it's really sad to know that they don't even want to fix it. Now I have to definitely be stronger and more bold as a woman in the workforce. I work in customer service, I'm already dealing as it is with the male gaze. Now, with Trump leading America, it's just going to be more demeaning for women and men are going to feel like they can just grab us by the pussy. I'm going to have to be more aware and also the people around me that women are human beings."

"I'm devastated, but honestly not completely surprised because my dad is a conservative and he has been calling this for a year and a half. I knew he was onto something 'cause he's very smart. He's been saying the country's too upset. People are too pissed. Nobody's buying what Hillary's selling. I didn't want to believe it. Certainly not during the last days when all the projections were in her favor. But I mean, he was onto something. The country's upset. People don't want business as usual. The people have spoken in a terrible way. I'm not okay with it, but I'm okay with democracy. I understand that this is the way it goes and if fully half the country feels this way, who am I to say it's wrong?"

"It's just absolutely horrible. As a woman, I'm really sad today because I think we just lost a major chance at having a role model and for a woman to be a major political figure. That would've been a great moral support for younger girls to grow up and know that there is a way for them to actually make change in their country. As a woman of color especially, not only does Trump have utterly no respect for women, but for any demographic besides white people. I'm pretty scared, honestly. It's not even really Donald Trump I'm worried about. It's the Supreme Court justice he's going to choose and all of the things that follow his leadership. In 2016, the presidential candidate we're choosing isn't just a decision-maker but also a leader for the direction of our country and that's the actual scary part for me."

"We feel sick. We're all going through a roller coaster of emotions. There's like a knot in my stomach. You feel desperate and you're at a loss. It's frustrating to see how many people are just not seeing what's right. There's so much ignorance where you thought everything was a little bit ahead of the times and turns out they're not. I had bigger hopes for humanity. A bunch of women voted for him too. It's sick."

"I'm feeling pretty shocked because the whole thing is pretty unreal. I didn't even envision that this was a possibility and that enough of America is that ignorant. I mean, I feel like no progress is about to be made — not only on the social front. I feel terrible for anyone who is an illegal immigrant because they're about to get fucked. Also, climate change? The fact that he doesn't even acknowledge that as a situation? We're doomed."

"I feel kind of let down. I had high hopes that Hillary was going to win. She seemed to have a really good idea of what she wanted to do with the presidency. I feel like Trump is just going to flail his arms around and make problems. I don't have any trust in his abilities at all so I'm kind of just depressed. As a middle class white woman, it won't affect me as much, but I can imagine what it's going to be like for immigrants and people of color. They're going to have to deal with Trump and all of his hate. I'm Jewish and I know there's been a lot of reaction of him being compared to Hitler in the beginning and it's just terrifying to think he could create something similar to that. I hope he doesn't because no one deserves that."

Jamie: "I take public transportation. I'm a woman that's alive so I'm constantly sexually harassed. I've had doctors hit on me. I've been raped by "friends". That's under good presidents that think women are people. That is horrifying. I've never felt more scared to walk out of my house to do mundane shit like walk to the grocery store. After what he said to Billy Bush, I went to a Walgreens to buy cat litter and a guy catcalled me and I burst into tears. Because it was just the idea of a president who does that. You have no recourse. It gives men reason to treat women like garbage. What is he going to do now that he's president?"

Ariana: "I think it's more the issue of who's being elected president. As big of a feminist as I am, it's not so much that Hillary Clinton was not elected. It's that Trump was elected. I just can't believe that many people would elect someone that's so outright ridiculous. I thought it was a running joke for the longest time."

"I feel a little bit betrayed by my fellow voters and I feel fearful for the decisions that will be made and policies that will be affected. I feel like it's a big blow to feminism. It still feels very abstract but it makes me fearful."

"I'm very speechless. Do I really want to live here now? It's kind of crazy. In the future, I feel like this is going to affect my life. "

"I'm feeling very depressed and I'm very worried about my reproductive rights. If he's leading, I'm really worried about abortion, reproductive laws, and just the overall view of women. Obviously, I'm having irrational thoughts like how do we get California to secede? Shall I move to Berlin? I feel like as a woman, it's a very specific loss because Hillary's a woman and Trump represents everything misogynistic and anti-women. For all the women who have fought so hard for all of our reproductive rights, even nuanced things like respecting women as equals, to have someone come into office who belittle women in such a way is really scary."

"I feel dispirited. I'm fortunate to be in California which is such a liberal state. But I worry for women that live in Midwestern states where their reproductive rights are already so restricted and limited, and I'm super worried about what's going to happen. I don't think he really means what he says that much. He just says those things because it's getting him the votes, so it's doubly inauthentic. I totally thought Hillary had it this morning and everyone was so excited about voting. And now I'm trembling inside."

"I feel like it's hard because he's such a disrespectful man. And it's not only because of Hillary and she's a woman running. I feel like if there was another man running like Bernie Sanders, there still would have been the democratic vote for Bernie because Trump is very disrespectful towards all races except the white vote. As a woman, it's just hard to believe anyone would vote for him."