With the passing of March, Women’s History Month draws to a close, sticking the excited babble around feminism back in the closet until next year when March rolls around again.
As much as the world talks a big game about equality, we are failing epicly at making that into a simple truth. From scientific discoveries to representation in the work field to equal pay, we as a people are failing miserably in giving women what they deserve.
One of the saddest things about Women’s History Month is, as amazing as the celebration of women is, it’s shoved under the rug as soon as March is over. It’s the same problem we have with Black History Month. We celebrate them and forget about them, all in the span of four weeks.
During the celebration, we work to highlight women who’ve made leaps and bounds for the world, but barely make a dent in the number of women that deserve recognition.
Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson and Dorothy Vaughn are finally becoming household names after “Hidden Figures” released in 2016. These women made the moon landing possible, yet we only heard about them nearly 50 years later.
But, of course, we’ve known Neil Armstrong’s name since the very moment it happened, we can even quote him.
“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” Some giant leap.
How many other women have been the markers of these huge historical landmarks and go unknown, forgotten to the pages of our history books?
Rosalind Franklin, Vera Atkins, Elizabeth Fry? Wangari Maathai, Grace Hopper, Nellie Bly? Have you ever heard their names? For most, that answer is most likely no. Franklin paved the road to the discovery of DNA being a double helix. Atkins was a military intelligence agent who found over 100 missing soldiers.
Fry brought to light the mistreatment of prisoners, Maathai showed society that the destruction of Mother Nature we are pursuing is going to destroy us in turn. Hopper changed the way the technology of computers works and Bly showed the world that women can be hard-hitting reporters just as well as men.
That is but a miniscule fraction of a fraction of the women that are cut out of history, broken off from the taught world.
The world struggles with gender equality longer than just one month. The wage gap is very real, the glass ceiling is very real, representation is very real and the objectification of women is very real.
And while we’ve progressed in any of these areas, we have backtracked in others.
Yes, women are finally managing to break into the political and STEM worlds, but trans women and women of color are seemingly completely discounted from modern feminism. It’s almost disgusting, the way that many “progressives” will speak out for “women of all kinds” until it becomes uncomfortable for them. It’s like sticking a knife in their back.
“White feminism” is toxic feminism.
These “progressives” walk around, claiming “equality for all,” yet always seem to have hidden agendas. They scream about the glory of women and the need for raising women’s wages to be equal to those of men, but ask them how they feel about the Latina woman who just moved nextdoor from Mexico, or how they feel about the trans girl that just joined their daughter’s softball team.
They seem to go silent, despite their boasts of “fighting for the little guy.”
Many of them don’t even realize they do that, though. They are brainwashed from birth to be wary of anyone different from themselves because that’s the excruciating fact of the world we live in.
It’s depressing, and it’s something to combat.
Women will always stand out, no matter where they are. It’s in their nature to stand up and fight back. It’s both their downfall and their greatest strength, their ability to rise up against the odds and raise their fists in defiance.
It’s an inspiration.