In 1857, the first organized strike by working women led to a movement that is still propelling feminists to activism today. On Mar. 8, New York City textile workers protested against unsafe working conditions and unfair wages. In 1908, women working in needle trades marched to protest child labor and sweatshop conditions.
Starting in 1910, Mar. 8 was recognized as International Women’s Day to celebrate what women have contributed socially, economically, and politically.
However, 115 years later, women’s rights are still under attack, and feminists are still marching for equal rights.
Starting the day Trump was inaugurated for the second time, ReproductiveRights.gov was taken offline. The website contained information on reproductive rights, abortion care and how to access it, and information on someone’s rights as a pregnant person.
As far as I’m concerned, the removal of this website was the second step toward a national abortion ban. Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the case that effectively overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, was the first.
Four days later, Trump signed Executive Order 14182: Enforcing the Hyde Amendment. The order rescinds two previous executive orders that expanded access to reproductive healthcare – including Joe Biden’s 2022 order securing access to reproductive care and abortion access – and prohibits the use of federal funds for elective abortions.
In a haunting parallel to Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid Tale,” Trump’s Vice President JD Vance ran with a core part of his platform focusing on the United States’ declining fertility rate, stating we should be having more babies because they’re “economically useful” and “good”.
In January, Vance made a call to action at a March for Life stating he wants more babies in America and that we “failed a generation by permitting the culture of abortion on demand.”
Personally, a push toward traditional values, such as women being expected to have children, feels like a step backwards. Recent legislation being proposed shows an even further push toward these archaic values.
Texas introduced an act called the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, which is attempting to set new requirements for citizens to be able to vote, including the requirement that one’s first and last name must be the same on all their documentation. One problem with this, among many others, is that many married women change their last name.
Those who introduced the bill insist that there would be processes in place to allow women with changed last names to still vote, such as providing additional documentation. But such as it always is with bureaucracy, this process is expected to be covered in red tape and difficult to navigate; a process that I suspect will discourage women from registering.
In my opinion, I feel like a formula for oppression is being followed. When the government steadily strips the general population of their rights, restricts their access to medical care, and eliminates the ability to choose their representatives, democracy is eroded in favor of an authoritarian government.
To get involved with International Women’s Day locally, events can be found here and here.
For any student who feels distressed by the policies discussed in this article, please consider downloading 5 Calls, an app that connects users with local representatives and provides scripts about policy changes.