This past Wednesday was International Women's Day, a day spent commemorating and appreciating the achievements and value of women past, present, and future. An unexpected addition to the celebration was a tweet from Donald Trump.
"On Internation Women's Day, join me in honoring the critical role of women here in American and around the world." At first glance, it seems almost impressive. Finally, Donald Trump is ending his string of sexist, hateful comments, and making an effort to support women.
Another tweet from the day was the following:
"I have tremendous respect for women and the many roles they serve that are vital to the fabric of our society and our economy." Again, it seems impressive.
The White House commemorated Women's Day with a luncheon, which Melania Trump hosted. Donald Trump was not in attendance. Sean Spicer put out a statement on Women's Day, saying, "America will only become stronger, more prosperous, and better able to meet our shared goals, as women achieve greater access to a level playing field." He continued to say that the administration's policies "will work to advance the economic empowerment of women by promoting entrepreneurship and equal access to education, employment opportunities, and training adapted to a new economic landscape." The "Day Without Women" movement was avoided.
So we have a number of statements from the White House, all appearing to be supportive of women and our rights, all appearing to be a part of an effort to raise women up. Unfortunately, these statements are all coming from an administration set on tearing women down.
How often has Donald Trump said, "No one has more respect for women than me," or some variation of it? His tweets from Women's Day are essentially that –– baseless, nearly delusional statements claiming his support for women, that are in fact the only instances in which he has attempted to show any support for women. Trump's support exists only in name –– he likes to say he supports women, but everything about his policies and his actions say the opposite. And what's the likelihood he actually wrote those tweets? I don't see anything about FAKE NEWS or anything 'Sad!', so the jury's still out on this one.
Spicer's comments are more of the same. He talks about an administration working to empower women economically through work and education on the same day that thousands of women did not go to work just to prove their value in the workplace. How can an administration talk about levelling the playing field when nearly every policy they've initiated has been something that hurts women? Betsy DeVos is working defund public education. Planned Parenthood is under attack. The President of the United States has sexually assaulted women. The chief strategist abused his ex-wife. The Vice President is anti-LGBT+ rights and anti-choice. How can anyone from that administration say that they support women with a straight face?
This is not what women need. We do not need pretty words from an administration who is against us, one day a year when they feel it's expected of them. We need people who are going to acknowledge that it's not women that earn 79 cents to every man's dollar, it's white women. And that black women earn 65 cents, and Hispanic women 54. We need people who are going to understand that abortion is a fundamental right, and that abortion is only 3% of the services provided by Planned Parenthood. We need people who know that feminism is a fight that reaches far beyond the borders of the United States, and that it's about women all over the world who are treated like they're worth nothing.
The administration currently in place does not understand what women still need to reach an equal playing field. They've given us one day a year on which they've pretended to care, and that's all we're going to get. This administration doesn't understand that women are women 365 days a year, not just for 24 hours every March.
So what are we going to do about it?
