Only women can understand what life is like as a woman, even then not all women go through the same experiences due to their race, class and gender (transgendered women). If we think about ourselves as women in a certain situation, it can be amazing the things we learn that women encounter on a daily basis. For example, walking home late at night. Of course, for men that doesn’t seem threatening or scary, but it’s a life-long terror for women of all ages.

I could be dressed to where absolutely no skin is showing whatsoever, and I can still get cat called and made to feel as if I am revealing myself to these men I pass on the way home. However, I know I’m not and deep down they know it too. I clutch my purse that contains a stun gun and mace in it, and in the other hand I hold my keys ready to use them as a weapon if need be. Why must I do, this? Why do I have to be the one ready to defend myself, so men don’t harm me? Why can’t society teach men not to rape/attack women? Why must women be objectified, in order for them to feel some sense of worth, if they feel any at all? Why are all the questions left unanswered?

It’s depressing being a woman and knowing just how unfair the world is. I could tolerate it if this was the absolute worst that was happening to women now, but it’s not. It’s far from it. There are young girls out there this is happening to and worse. Some girls at the age of only nine are being married off to middle-aged men.

There are little girls being watched, abused and objectified by the age of five. It’s heartbreaking. There is so much that women endure throughout their lifetime. There are women of color who finally get to college to be asked if they think they will graduate — not what is your major like a white female college student would be asked. There are women of color asked awful questions just because of their race.

There are single women working three jobs or more trying to support their kids because of the unequal pay gap women suffer through. There are so many things wrong with the way women experience life, and a lot of it has to do with their class and their race. It isn’t an individual problem women didn’t choose to be treated this way. It’s a social problem that needs to be fixed.