Juanita Broaddrick, Kathleen Willey, Paula Jones, Natasha Henstridge, Paz de la Huerta, Annabella Sciorra, Anita Hill.

Too many women have stories like the women listed above. We are acting like sexual assault and harassment in the workplace is unheard of. With all these public figures being fired and asked to step down lately, has anyone noticed so many of these victims waited years before reporting anything?

The women who spoke out against Bill Clinton will forever be known as those women. Those women who accused a sitting president of sexual misconduct. Anita Hill will never be known and celebrated for her successful career and her achievements. She is that woman who accused Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment. Natasha Henstridge, Paz de la Huerta, and Annabella Sciorra are three of the women in a slideshow of women accusing Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault.

We will only ever associate these women with what happened to them.

While it is great that we live in a society where we will listen to these women and put their stories out there, the reactions only come as a defense. It’s time for us to do something. When the news coverage of these incidents and scandals start, all we hear is talk. People talk about solutions, people talk about potential repercussions, and they speculate. Once something else happens, we forget about them.

Today Juanita Broaddrick, Kathleen Willey, and Leslie Millwee joined Melanie Morgan, one women accusing Frankin of harassment, in storming Al Frankin's office and demanding his resignation. The press conference they held in his office was live streamed on Twitter. Frankin’s office refused to let these women speak to Frankin himself. In the end, security was called and the women left the office. While the outcome isn’t desirable, these women did something. However, when the next news cycle hits, they will once again only be known for what happened to them, not what they tried to do about it.

Sexual assault and sexual harassment are more than a news story. It is the reason women never go out to bars alone. It is the reason we can never take our eyes off our drink starting the second the bartender pulls out the cup or opens a beer bottle. It is why my friends and I share our location with one another when we go out. It is why I was scared to be around my friends sometimes when I went home.

The second time I was sexually assaulted I was 18 and about to go off to college. I was so excited about getting a fresh start at a school I had spent the last few months dreaming about. I couldn’t walk or hold my head up when someone I thought was a friend from high school dragged me into another friend’s bedroom. He sat there and told me “you’ll thank me for this one day”. I don’t have as big of a platform that these women have, but I will not be silent. I have had to come to terms with the fact the men who assaulted me will never be punished. But I and everyone else shouldn’t have to. I will finish my degree in political science and public policy, and I will get my law degree so I can promote, create, and defend all victims of sexual assault and harassment.

To the news media, this not a political game. When someone sexually harasses or sexually assaults a woman then intimidates her by threatening her career, it’s because these sick individuals think they are untouchable. Because the majority of these men only face a trial in the court of public opinion they can think they are untouchable. Let's stop speculating, debating, and making this about political parties. Let's make this a call to action.

Juanita Broaddrick, Kathleen Willey, Leslie Millwee, and Melanie Morgan took the first step towards doing something today. For that, they should be praised. I join them in demanding that Al Frankin and John Conyers step down. I also join them in demanding that the list of elected officials that have used taxpayer dollars to settle similar cases be released and punished.