On Saturday, January 21st, millions of women flooded the streets of the United States in protest for Women’s Rights. I was lucky enough to be a part of the 500,000 women who marched on Washington. The experience truly changed my life. I was always taught to stand up for what I believed in and for those who cannot stand up for themselves, and so on January 21st, I did just that.
The Women’s March was not just a march for women but also for those of different faiths, races, and religions, the LGBTQIA community, and also the disabled community. All of these people came together after the rhetoric of the last election cycle. There were comments made throughout the primary and general elections that were unsettling for these groups of people.
The official website for the Women’s March described the march as follows…
“In the spirit of democracy and honoring the champions of human rights, dignity, and justice who have come before us, we join in diversity to show our presence in numbers too great to ignore. The Women’s March on Washington will send a bold message to our new government on their first day in office, and to the world that women’s rights are human rights. We stand together, recognizing that defending the most marginalized among us is defending all of us.”
I marched for a variety of reasons. I have faced discrimination in my own life and have seen others face discrimination for something as simple as their gender. The way I see it, I could sit back and let myself be put down and discriminated against, or I can stand up and do something about it.
I understand that many girls and women who did not see the march as necessary because they see women as equal to men and to this women I say, “are you really that naïve?” One in four women will still be sexually assaulted in her lifetime. Very few of these assaults will be reported to authorities and even less will end in a criminal conviction. According to a study conducted at the Medical University of South Carolina, it is estimated that about twenty million out of one hundred and twelve million women in the United States have been raped during their lifetime whether the rape be by force, drug facilitated, or incapacitated. Sexual Assault is altogether to common and yet is still one of the most underreported, if not the most underreported crimes. It is estimated that only sixteen percent of rapes are reported to authorities and it is also estimated that out of all the sexual assaults that happen throughout the United States, only five percent of end in a criminal conviction (Kilpatrick, Resnick,et. al, 2007).
Despite more women joining the work force in recent decades, women still make $0.77 to a man’s dollar, for the same work. Equal pay for equal work is another reason that I marched. As a woman who takes a variety of Criminal Justice and Law Enforcement classes, I know what it feels like to be in a male-dominated environment. Just because I am a minority in these classes and in this career choice, that does not mean I should be paid less. The men I take classes with respect me and my future employer should as well.
I am not bitter. I do not hate men. I am hopeful, hopeful that one day my daughter will grow up in a world where she does not fear her well being as a woman, where she does not fear rape or assault, where she knows she will be treated as an equal.
That is why I marched.