Passion; a willingness to suffer. We all know it. We have all felt it. Whether passion for dreams we wish to achieve. Passion for the families and loved ones left behind in a calling of defense of the nation. Passion for politics, for religion, for love, for so many different things. We act in this passion, we face the fear, we put others before ourselves. We fight, we stand. We march.
January 21, 2017. A day on which women around the world showcased their passion. A passion deeply rooted in a love, a sympathy for one another. For generations, women have been plagued with unequal opportunities presenting an uneven playing field. Indeed, women’s rights have been allocated. We are able to receive the same level of education as men – beginning at Mount Holyoke College. Our education opportunities have spread all the way to an ability to have the same education at the same university. We can work in any field, we can run companies, and so much more. We owe all thanks to the passionate women who have gone before us (shout out to Mary Lyon). So, if our playing field has leveled, why do we still march? Why did women gather from around the world to march for issues that seem to be resolved? What is left for women to fight for?
Women marching in the 1970s at Mount Holyoke College for women to be astronauts.
In short, we fight for equality and respect.
We seek to rid the disparity in work, business and politics. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average woman still makes as little as 56.7% of the earnings of a man. So equal work for unequal pay. We see similar imbalance in political offices. Only 20% of the The House of Representative and Senate seats are filled by women. We still have not yet had a female President. There are still glass ceilings to be broken. These are reasons that I marched.
We seek to close the gap of women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. As a woman in STEM, I can tell you that it is not an easy field; let alone for a woman. I often find myself as one of the very few women in STEM rooms I enter. As women in STEM, we study the magnitude of bound vectors and test for the convergence of a Taylor Series while pushing ourselves to grow in substantial confidence to gain any level of respect in our field simply because we are women and hence the minority. According to the National Girls Collaborative Project, 43.2% of mathematics degrees are awarded to women. These exceptional women get out into the workforce and find themselves making 81.2% the week’s pay of a man. That’s 18.7% less. So equal work, equal investment and education for unequal pay. As a women in STEM, these are reasons I marched.
We seek respect; and I marched in a demand for this respect. Our new President has made statements against women calling them “bimbos” and boasting about infamously “grabbing them by the p***y.” Aside from the politics that arise, the man simply does not seem to respect women. He once Tweeted about women in the military:
As the daughter of a U.S. Marine, I find this statement disgusting as it not only offends the dedicated women of the military, but also the men, painting them as sex-driven maniacs.
To Mr. Trump I say please listen to us. Please respect us and hear us out. I hope we can work together to truly make America great in these next four years.
Signs in front of popular (my favorite) Chinese restaurant after March in downtown Los Angeles.
This march has been called a protest by its opposition. But as an active participant, I did not see it as such. I saw it as a stand. A stand for a passion. Not a single woman I met was angry. Every woman I met was there for one cause: to make her voice heard and to ensure that we backed one another because, after all “behind every successful woman is a tribe of successful women who have her back.”
As I boarded the Metro Goldline feeling as though I had dived into a Sardine can, but a can of strong women standing up for the same thing as me, my eyes filled with hot tears. Here we were together, standing for our beliefs – our passions. Once in downtown Los Angeles I saw women of every race, every age, coming together with the same message – Don’t mess with us.
A protest versus a march.
So yes, I am still a proud American. Yes, I realize Donald Trump is my president and yes I have respect for his authority. Yes, I am still a Christian girl who strongly believes in marriage and the heirarchy of the household. Yes, I believe we should always love and support our men and women in uniform. Yes, I believe all lives matter but I believe Black Lives Matter is a powerful movement and yes I believe women have come a long way but there is still work to be done.
No, I do not believe if you did not participate or support the march that you are a “disgraceful woman”. I am proud of you for also taking a stand for what you believe in as a woman because we have not always had that power. No, I am not blaming anyone nor whining and crying, I am standing strong and firm in my beliefs. There are no tears here, just blood and sweat – passion.
Our march was peaceful. It was respectful. It was powerful. But the march did not end that day.
We march on. We continue our education, we broaden our spectrum, we travel the world and help those in need because to stop a march is to kill a passion. And that is a beautiful thing that cannot be tossed away so easily.
