"Equality Cries" by Joyce Kim

A nation in mute.

Brightly colored signs. Approaching figures. Bold block letters and hand-drawn images embellish the diverging faces, a patchwork of all different sizes and shapes and colors. As the crowd shifts, it creates a ripple of raised fists, open lips, and faces drawn in tense determination, furrowed brows and iron gazes tilted towards the sky. Almost as if it were in slow-motion — indignant gestures and enraged motions, the pain and desperation in their crumbling expressions, all captured within a single silent moment that seems to last an eternity.

Sound on.

The swish sound as their signs are raised. The rumbling of their footsteps like a herd of angry bulls. Harmonies erupt as every seam in the patchwork finds their voice and the courage to open their mouths and cry out. For their mothers, their daughters, their sisters, their friends, their lovers, their wives, their mentors, their leaders, for themselves — they raise their voices. Their echoing cries and fierce roars pierce through the city air. And in the midst of it all, five words ring clear through the streets.

“Women’s rights are human rights.”

In 1848 at Seneca Falls, New York, the first women’s rights gathering was held in response to the government’s failure to uphold the Constitution’s promise that “all men and women are created equal.” Since then, the gathering has become a widespread movement, like the Women’s Suffrage Procession of 1913 or the Strike for Equality in 1979. In January of 2017, following President Trump’s inauguration, the Women’s March on Washington called thousands to the nation’s capital in protest of the Trump Administration. In late 2017, social activist Tarana Burke’s spark of “me too,” aimed to empower victims by letting them know they aren’t alone, was kindled into a movement that swept across social media as several Hollywood stars opened up about their own experiences with sexual violence.

The movement for gender equality has come far from the beginning — in suffrage, birth control, the increasing number of women in politics, or even just extended awareness. But is it enough?

As much as these movements attribute change, they also reflect the constant gender bias that continues to bleed through time. To this day, women still fight for basic rights, like control over their own body and childcare. To this day, women and girls continue to be exploited, reduced to mere objects. To this day, women remain at a disadvantage to their male counterparts, denied of equal opportunities. According to the World Economic Forum, the current rate of change suggests that women will have to wait 202 years to be allowed parity in the workforce. A survey by nonprofit organization Stop Street Harassment revealed that more than 81% of women in the United States have experienced sexual harassment. It seems that any change insinuating reflects only a portion of the problem; we are still speaking to plugged ears. And that can never be enough.

The biggest problem that women and girls face in the United States today is not circumstantial. The patriarchy, sexism, and inequalities we witness all around us are not the foundation of the problem, but rather the consequences of it — the perpetrators’ refusal to listen, no matter how much we cry out.

But what really can we do about it? When the essence of the problem lies with the perpetrator, it’s hard to pinpoint exactly what must be done to be heard, not just dismissed as noise. As far as the problem, we can invite others to our experiences. Through education and sharing our own accounts, we can help open others’ minds to the value of empathy and call them to recognize the consequences of their actions. After all, no one is born prejudiced, and closed crevices are bound to creak open too, until even the slightest stream of our voices can leak through.

With our own actions, we must continue to do what we have been doing. Whether it be taking to the streets and social media, utilizing our platforms to spread a message, working hard and inspiring young girls to do the same — we can continue to raise our voices in challenge of a society against us and use it to push for change. And with our voices, we can one day lift the glass ceiling until it is completely shattered, until our chants ring clear through the sky, until equality once and for all becomes the foundation of our nation.