Women's Voices are to be Heard not Silenced

When I was growing up, I was always involved in sports, but mainly volleyball. I had a lot of coaches throughout the years and many of them identify as female. Not only were these coaches instrumental in teaching me the game of volleyball, they also made me feel powerful and that had control over everything that I encountered in life.

The point of this story is that since a very young age, I have been supported by other women and have been told that I have my own voice. With having your own voice, means that you have every tool you need to form and speak your own opinion.

However, as I have gotten older, I realize more and more that this is not the case, especially with making my own decisions about MY body. In today’s society, now more than ever, women are controlled and silenced by men.

In today’s government, we are faced with new laws and regulations that have to do with women’s health but specifically women’s reproductive health.

One of the laws that comes to mind when thinking of men constructing laws and having control over women’s health and decisions is the “Mexico City Policy” or better known as the Global Gag Rule. This policy was put into effect by the Reagan administration but then later expanded even further by the Trump administration. The Global Gag Rule effects the foreign and US NGOs  that receive government funding, especially women’s services clinics. In these clinics, the physicians and clinic workers cannot, by any means, mention legal abortion to their patients. If they do, the family planning clinics will lose their government funding.

So, even though we have these family planning services, women are educated about their rights, and they are under the assumption that they can do what they feel is best for their situation, they still cannot exercise these rights. This creates the attitude toward women that they cannot have say in what their future looks like. This also begins to make women feel like their voices are not valued. The type of discourse that we are creating is that women are being silenced and not respected.

The major tie between women losing their voice and choices that they can make with their bodies is the Trump administration. There has been a huge regression in women’s rights in general but more importantly, their reproductive rights. Women are fearful for their health and fearful to talk to the men above them to get the choices that they deserve.

A more current example of men making decisions for women’s bodies would be when the Trump Administration made the decision up to insurance companies for whether or not they want to cover birth control methods. This was being said to have happened because of the owners of the insurance companies religious beliefs. What happened between the separation between church and state? In a New York Times article that discusses more about this topic, the author states at the end that the administration does not want people to have to go against their serious religious beliefs. They mentioned too that the administration does also not have a lot of significant data on how this will affect women in regards to the amount of unintended pregnancies that may occur. You would think that a little research with this data would be important to a policy change as grand as this one.

Although these two examples are showing how men and the government as a whole are trying to silence women, it is important to share examples of how women continue to persevere and find their voice, just as I did when I was young.

Books such as Our Bodies, Ourselves are so important and relevant to women’s movements. This book, written by a women’s collective, talks about everything spanning from sexuality to menopause. There are lessons in the book that regard both topics that were mentioned today, abortion and birth control. But overall, the book Our Bodies, Ourselves sparks a conversation of women’s health and encourages women to talk to each other about their experiences.

But the major question is: How do we keep the conversation going?

With the latest edition of Our Bodies, Ourselves being published in 2011, there is less talk about the book. However, we see women empowerment every day. We need to encourage women to speak their opinions and change legislation. We saw this major band of women come together from all backgrounds and walk together once the president was elected into office. All though the Global Gag Rule was expanded just 48 hours after the Women’s March, you did not see women get quiet, if anything they spoke louder. Women will continue to march, to fight, and to work their way up to the top to get what they deserve: equal rights and opportunities.

One final suggestion towards women making their voices being heard is simply just by voting and speaking up. If women continue to talk to other women, do their research about which candidate they are looking for, and show up on election day, the outcome will be astounding. Women will get to be represented in the way that they deserve. Women will be able to make their own, conscious choices about their bodies.

Women are powerful. Women will not be silenced.