Reprinted with permission from Brunswick County Early College High School’s The Firebird Times.

The women’s suffrage movement occurred in 1848 at a Seneca Falls convention yet girls and women everywhere are still fighting for their rights now in 2024. Women were not granted the right to vote until the 19th amendment was formed in 1919 which basically said that the government was not allowed to deny people the right to vote based on their sex. This still did not include women of color.

The beginning of the women’s suffrage movement was 176 years ago and for decades women have continued to fight for their right to vote, work, speak, and live with the same rights that a man has. When women are not facing the band of laws wrapped around their bodies, they are facing humiliation and persecution just for the gender they were born as.

Growing up I have seen so many women silenced by the booming voices of others. Bosses, co workers, peers, friends, members of the same community, and even fathers go through life condensing women’s egos to build their own.

As a child when a boy is mean to a little girl she is told that he has a crush on her and to just ignore it. That teaches young girls to accept the abuse that leaps from the hands of boys in order to keep the peace and not risk hurting the boys’ feelings. The girl is taught to sacrifice her morals to spare the boy’s heart.

As girls grow they are taunted, touched, and tamed by the boys in their society and they are told that they should take it as a compliment because that means the boy thinks they are pretty. This leads to independent women being expected to seek the refuge and contentment of men that surround them like lions on the prowl for their next prey.

Women like Susan B. Anthony, or Malala Yousafazi have spent years fighting for their rights just to be at an equal standpoint with men just for society to deprive them of equal opportunities and treatment in today’s world. Women who fought decades ago are still trying to conquer their rights that every man around them has. They have had to watch as the world continues to disregard the voices of women like a piece of trash that is to be thrown away.

The word feminism is feared in today’s society because people assume it means the hatred of men. As women we do not need to hate to feel equal, we just need to be heard. Emma Watson stated at an international women’s day Q & A “ Men think it’s a woman’s word, but what it means is that you believe in equality, If you stand for equality, then you’re a feminist.” Feminism is not about women’s superiority to men but the equality that we desperately long for.

Women can’t even have equality in regards to how much they pay on a product. There is a phrase in society called the “Pink Tax”. According to the National Organization For Women “The pink tax, a theory that companies market products to women that are more expensive than nearly identical products targeted toward men, is a crucial example of gender and income inequality.”

The pink tax is just another economic example of the difference of treatment from women in society to men.

As a young girl in America, I should not have to see how women are viewed at a lower surpurity than men at every corner I take.

At a very young age girls began to hear whistles and shouts from across the road that are centered in their direction by men much older than them. They are told to ignore it and don’t antagonize them because it could be dangerous. Women put up with this torment to again keep the peace of the men around them.

So many women are silenced by the fear that the grasp of men will tighten around their necks that they stay quiet. According to RAINN The Criminal Justice System Statistics, only 310 out of 1,000 sexual assaults are reported to the police per year. Women fear to speak up for themselves because they will not be heard and even if their voice was heard across nations, few would actually take the time to listen.

Women are often told that if they speak on their assault it will ruin the man’s life. So here we are again sacrificing our hearts for the protection of men and yet there is no one to protect us.

In Palestine, the Talibans have created a law in which women are not allowed to speak in public or hear each other pray. According to The Guardian, “New Taliban laws that prohibit women from speaking or showing their faces outside their homes have been condemned by the UN and met with horror by human rights groups.”

Women also must cover their entire body and faces in order to avoid invoking temptation in the men around them. Women hold a special bond within each other and now they are not even allowed to speak to each other without fear of prosecution.

Women are often viewed as beauty and no brains or just something pretty to look at like we are some kind of precious heirloom that people are told not to touch, but this only makes them want to violate us more.

On several occasions women have been asked “What were you wearing?” when speaking out about their assault. In society’s opinion, it is on women to cover up and not antagonize or provoke men to do unlawful things to them. Yet it is rare that men are punished for what they have done.

A woman could scream for help with every last ounce of her breath and the only rush of acknowledgment is the blame that leaps from the tongues of society seeking for a way to blame her for the man’s actions and justify his violation upon her body and mind.

At the most recent Golden Globes comedian Jo Koy states “ Barbie is based on a doll with big boobies.” When comparing the Barbie movie to Oppenheimer. Few people are able to grasp the dire and desperate sensation that the Barbie movie will invoke in young and older girls’ hearts everywhere. The Barbie movie is about empowerment and equality and is instead seen as a new hot topic for boys to poke fun at and is seen as silly and meaningless to those who don’t suffer at the hands of men.

Women have been fighting for equality for decades and have never backed down no matter what prosecution they have faced. It is important as a society to have equality. Not just rights for women but fair treatment of both men and women. We should all be equal, not separated in superiority based on our genders.