Glass shards at my feet: A reflection on Women’s History Month

LINDSEY GRADOWSKI: Recently, I read that women still make 82 cents for every dollar a man makes. To say that I was caught off guard would be an understatement. I knew that women historically earned less than men for the same work, but some part of me had never registered how large the gap was. Upon reflection, I realized why. I have spent 19 years never feeling like my gender never limited my potential, and it never occurred to me that the rest of the world was not on the same page.

Over the past two centuries, women have accomplished incredible things. As far back as 1776, Abigail Addams wrote her famous letter imploring her husband John to “remember the ladies,” setting a precedent for women asserting their influence in politics. In 1872, Susan B. Anthony cast her ballot in the 1872 presidential election, despite knowing that she would be arrested. Then, in 1916, the first woman was elected to Congress, despite not having universal suffrage. Jeannette Rankin represented Montana from 1917-1919, where she pushed for peace legislation and combatted stereotypes about female legislators. 1955 saw Rosa Parks’ iconic protest that spurred on the Civil Rights Movement. Five years later Margaret Sanger developed the first FDA-approved birth control, allowing women to have more control over if and when they had children. In 1981, Sandra Day O’Connor became the first woman appointed to the US Supreme Court, and President Clinton’s administration appointed Janet Reno as the first female Attorney General and Madeleine Albright as the female Secretary of State. In the last five years, America has seen the first major party presidential nominee with Hilary Clinton and in January, Kamala Harris was sworn in as the first female Vice President.

Hearing these stories, it can be easy to fall into a state of complacency. Certainly, that is what happened to me. Growing up learning about and admiring the amazing women I described above, and many more, it was unfathomable to me that there was still a perception in some parts of society that women are not as capable as their male counterparts. This complacency is so dangerous because it stalls progress. These instances of female excellence are crucial to highlight and celebrate. Yet, at the same time, we still have a lot of work to do. We cannot just break the glass ceiling, we have to shatter it. 
Instead, each “first” breaks away a pane of the glass ceiling. First female Congresswoman, Attorney General, Secretary of State, Vice President— they all chip away at the overarching male domination of politics, but their successes do not guarantee that all female politicians will get a fair shot. Men and women running for office are still held to egregiously different standards. Take, for example, Neera Tanden. Just a few days ago, she was forced to withdraw her nomination as head of the Office of Management and Budget after some “mean tweets” of hers emerged. The double standard here is painfully obvious. Donald Trump peddled hateful rhetoric and divisiveness over Twitter with a colorful array of insults on almost a daily basis. He was elected President. Neera Tanden cannot get confirmed by a Senate her party controls. 

What can we take away from this? How do we recognize the major strides made by women while not growing complacent? This women’s history month has led me to reflect on exactly that, and I’ve come to the conclusion that the glass ceiling is not shattered, but it is cracking. We stand, looking up at sunlight peeking through that ceiling, glass shards surrounding us from the efforts of women who came before us. We owe it to them, as well as to ourselves, never to tire in our quest for equality.

There’s a popular saying that one should not throw stones at glass houses, but in this case, it is clear: we must keep throwing stones at the glass ceiling, and someday it will shatter.

Lindsey Gradowski is a freshman in the College from Arlington, Virginia studying history and government.