Opinion of the Staff: Year of the Woman

The Staff

Since the beginning of time, women were never handed equal representation — poor Eve was made out of Adam’s leftovers! Dating back to the first feminist movement in America, the Suffrage Movement, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and many other determined activists set their focus on gaining civil and voting rights for women. With great passion and persistence, a women’s suffrage amendment was added to the Constitution in 1920. This accomplishment set the precedent for a future filled with protests, perseverance, and feminism. Now, almost a century later, these movements have become more intense and gained an extensive following. Specifically, with the growing presence of social media, feminism has spread over hundreds of platforms and has a comprehensive following. 2017 marked the top of these movements and was filled with even more passion and determination for change than in any previous years.

On the eve of the 2016 presidential election, a Facebook page was created by a woman named Teresa Shook to connect women with similar thoughts about the election and Donald Trump’s campaign. To their dismay, Trump was elected President and the United States would now have a leader that was accused of sexual harassment. The night before his inauguration ceremony, Shook created a Facebook event and invited people to march on the National Mall in Washington as a protest of his new presidency. Using social media as an outlet to spread the word, there was an estimated total

of 2.6 million people that participated in 673 marches, the largest being in Washington. The crowd of over 500,000 protesters was tremendous compared to the 5,000 women that attended the very first Women’s March in 1913.

Due to the monumental outcome of the march, more women were inspired to run for office and make their voices heard. Just within a few months, 25,000 women contacted Emily’s List, an organization that supports pro-choice women running for office. This is more than 25 times the number of women the administration heard from during the 2016 cycle. The march was discussed worldwide, catching the attention of people who might not have previously thought twice about gender equality. Feminism was at its highest point. Within the span of 2017 there would be even more marches and passionate protesting, as it was evident that women have now become the focal point of society.

The media, both social and traditional, was used as a convenient source for women all around the world to connect and raise attention to issues in a new and intense way. Just weeks after the Women’s March, a lady named Susan Fowler wrote a blog post about her toxic times working at the popular transportation network company, Uber. Fowler noted that she was sexually harassed on a regular basis and punished for reporting the manager to Human Resources. The post motivated women with similar experiences of harassment at Uber to vocalize their stories on social media. With the growing popularity of each post, the company finally hired an attorney to investigate the sexist atmosphere of the company. These women’s persistence resulted in the firing of 20 staffers, along with the resignation of founder and previous CEO Travis Kalanick. Women had no toleration for chauvinistic male control this year in the workplace.

This was just the beginning of women using media as a forum to express opinions, sexual harassment stories, and empathy. Within a few months, the New York Times and the New Yorker published many articles exposing the allegations of celebrities like Harvey Weinstein and Matt Lauer. Since then, thousands of women have come forward with their narratives of sexual violence, ushering the female community together as one powerful army. Tarana Burke, a civil rights activist, started the #MeToo movement, to allow women to unite together as victims of sexual assault, and the hashtag has been shared over 4.3 million times in countries all over the world. It even prompted a blackout of almost all celebrities at the 2018 Golden Globe Awards, and was a point of conversation at the ceremony. The fact that feminism has gained so much importance and following that it was the predominant topic of a global awards show displays how far women have come in their journey towards equality. Oppressive institutions, such as the harassment scandals in Hollywood, have been outnumbered by the women who have come together to speak up for one another and defend the female community, now more than ever.

With the presence of new media platforms, progressive strides regarding gender equality have undoubtedly been made. Last year was simply a preview of what women are capable of, and they are prepared to march into 2018 with even more passion and vigor. Women in 2017 have proved that anything is possible, and hard work certainly does pay off.