On January 21st not only women all over The United States but all around the world gathered together and marched as a response to Trump’s Presidency.

Donald Trump has publicly bashed women and made incredibly lewd comments over and over and over again throughout the years. During 2016’s Presidential election when the audio leaked of him talking about "grabbing (women) by the p***y” he defended himself by saying that what he was saying was simply just “locker room banter”. He compared talking about sexually assaulting women to “locker room banter”. This caused an outrage amongst women and contributed to the shock people felt November 8th when the election results came in. How on Earth could a man who degrades and treats women so poorly be the president of the United States? Is he really someone we want to be representing us? A man that has referred to women as fat, pigs, slobs, dogs and called Hillary Clinton a “nasty woman” on live television. This caused women to want to speak up. Hours after the election, what started as an idea on social media turned into a worldwide movement and the women marches became a reality.

What is happening right now is important and needed more than ever. This is about women empowerment, this is about not being dividing, this is about love trumping hate.

From the beginning of time women have always been looked at as the inferior gender, not being taken seriously, being belittled. We’ve been told that we belong in the kitchen. We’ve been told that our job is to give birth to children and obey our husbands. We’ve been called bossy at the same time a man has been called a leader. When women speak out we’re called irrational and told that we’re just “PMSing” when men speak out they’re courageous. Women have been looked at and treated like objects for far too long and us women have had enough. It is time to create an unbreakable united front and demand the respect and rights we deserve. People who are calling us “snowflakes” and “crybabies”, the people telling us to simply “get over it” because they won are all a part of the problem. No citizens should be losing when it comes to a Presidential election. People see our marches and protests and call it complaining, we call it fighting back.

“What are you even fighting for?” and “How is Donald Trump’s presidency a threat to women?” are common questions Trump supporters tend to ask. I’ll tell you what we’re fighting for. We are fighting for change. We are fighting for respect. We are fighting back against people like Donald Trump who spew out misogyny and hate. We are fighting for our reproductive rights. We are fighting for our voices to be heard. We are fighting back against the people trying to tell us what we should do with our bodies. We are fighting to end rape culture. We are fighting for our future generations and for the past generations who have worked so hard for women to get where they are today.

Donald Trump’s presidency is a threat to women because he does not respect women. How can he have our best interest at heart if he constantly oppresses us? His ideological views are a threat to women having control over what happens with their bodies. He openly admitted on live television that he would stack the supreme court with supreme court justices who shared his stance on being pro-life. Even his moral views are a threat to women. He thinks that a woman’s appearance and sex appeal determine her worth in society and whether or not her opinion matters. He goes on live television and does interviews where he normalizes the systematic mistreatment and oppression of women. Not only does he do all this but because he is a man of power, people let him get away with these things that he says and does.This has got to stop.

We are choosing to fight back peacefully and with solidarity. We should not be ridiculed and called names for doing something we have the right to do. We are not just a whole bunch of people “whining & complaining”. We are mothers, sisters, nieces, aunts, grandmothers, daughters. We are strong, passionate, determined individuals whose power only gets stronger with numbers. Women have stayed silent for too long and it is time for us to speak up. We want our voices to be heard, they deserve to be heard and they will be heard. We need to protect ourselves, to fight for our rights. To fight for our respect. We are the ones that are going to be raising the future generations. I’m speaking up for myself and the women around me. I’m speaking up for my 8-year-old niece because she deserves to grow up in a world where she will be treated with the same amount of respect as the boys she’ll grow up with. I do it for my mom who is one of the strongest women I know and didn’t raise me to feel like I could not achieve my dreams because I was a girl. I do it for my future kids and grandkids, for the future generations. It is time for us to come together. People of all races, religions, backgrounds, ages, genders, sexual orientations, and etc. It is time for us to make a change.