In December 2017, CNN released an article stating that 2018 would be the “Year of Women.” And for the most part, this rings true. So many amazing things have happened over the course of a year for women’s rights and gender equality. The 2018 midterm elections marked major accomplishments for women. These accomplishments range from South Dakota electing its first woman governor to Texas sending their first Hispanic women to Congress. With these steps in the right direction, some people, particularly women, tend to forget that advocating for women’s rights and female empowerment is much more than just going out to vote, attending a march, or tweeting a hashtag. Advocating for women’s rights and female empowerment doesn’t even have to be a physical thing one performs, but it’s how we, as women, treat one another.
The term feminist is thrown around quite a lot, and it’s a very powerful and empowering word. Being a feminist is something to be extremely proud of because it acknowledges that there are gender inequalities and that there needs to be a solution. Feminists care about finding these solutions and support women during that process. The idea of feminism is to fight for other women, not fight other women.
That is why it’s very upsetting to see circumstances, in which women shame other women, yet claim to call themselves feminists. Often times, I have found that women attack other women over things they are passionate about, proud of, jealous of, or just because they are different than them. It’s important to note that everyone is guilty of being judgemental sometimes, but to shame another woman because she is not behaving the way one thinks she should behave is no better than men shaming women for not behaving according to their standards. How are we ever supposed to break patriarchal beliefs inflicted upon women when there are patriarchal women who claim they advocate for women’s rights but do not actually support other women and empower them?
Women are amazing; there are so many great attributes that all types of women have. And if women collectively decided to accept that we are all different and powerful in our own ways, we would rule the world and make it into such a kind and accepting place. But this will never happen if we don’t let go of these jealousies and ill will we have toward other women. Before we can even expect radical and positive change within our country’s gender inequality, we have to stop women from shaming other women and teach them how to worry about themselves and making themselves happy. By doing this, we can learn to support other women on their journeys of doing the same. So let’s embrace 2019 and embrace ourselves as powerful women who do not need to shame other women to feel better about themselves. And here’s to leaving women shaming other women in 2018.