Flashback to January 20, 2017. It is 6:30am and a nippy 50 degrees outside. I am standing on the National Mall in the nation’s capital along with about 20 classmates from my high school waiting for Donald Trump to be sworn in as President of the United States.
It was a long day of walking, standing, more walking, and watching with defeated hearts. We were a very small group of Californian, blue-eyeliner-wearing liberals in a sea of Make America Great Again hats: out of our liberal bubble environment element.
Honestly, at the end of the very long day (and 13 miles later), I didn’t exactly feel filled with pride about witnessing a presidential inauguration. Yes, it was an opportunity in which a very small percentage of the population got to participate, but it seemed to be one that not everyone enjoyed (as seen by the photo below).
Image source: author’s own photo via Snapchat
The day before we had set out on our 4 a.m. inauguration adventure, our teacher chaperones had informed us that the organization we were traveling through had presented us with the opportunity to skip visiting Mount Vernon the day after the Inauguration in favor of participating in the Women’s March in D.C. The only catch was that we had to get at least 6 sets of our parents to allow us to go via emailing our chaperones.
Image source: PhotoPin
But after returning to the hotel after an exhaustive Inauguration Day, our teacher chaperones split us up into small groups and broke the news that sent almost every girl in the group into tears. Due to concerns from the high school in addition to not getting enough parental permission, we would not be attending the Women’s March the next day. There had been violent protests that we had been a little too close to that day and there was no telling what the march could instigate and to what degree.
We cried and tried to fight through what we considered a huge injustice, but the decision was final. We weren’t going to the women’s march and there was nothing we could do about it.
When you’re a 17-year-old high school student, there are lots of things you feel helpless about. College applications, your grades, parental rules, and so much more. The 2016 presidential election felt like just another thing to dump on top. Slap on a forced absence to what was one of the most internationally recognized feminist movements of the century and the world begins to feel like it’s keeping you from experiencing empowering events.
Had I not been in D.C., I too would have donned a pink hat, made a sign, and gone up to San Francisco with friends and spent the day feeling empowered and like I was making a difference.
Image source: author’s own photo
With all of that said, I have one final thing to put out into the world, and I hope you read this and take it to heart.
This isn’t over by any means. Women should not stop fighting. The “her” in the title is not specific to Hillary Clinton; it’s a reference to all women everywhere.
In the year since Donald Trump has been inaugurated as president, there has been a considerable increase in women’s participation in politics and political movements, like the #MeToo and Time’s Up campaigns. Let’s keep it going and stop for nothing. Never stop fighting. Fighting for the equality that we and so many others deserve. Keep working. Argue. Read. Write. Get smarter. Get stronger. Raise your voice, raise your hand. Speak up, speak out. Apply for that job, that scholarship, that school. Get that degree, that license, that position, that promotion.
No one can stop you, you’re a woman.
Cover image source: Unsplash