Women’s Progress Needs to Be Made Faster

Women have long been the harbingers of change. Seven generations of women’s collective effort – in family life, religion, politics, work, education and more – have transformed our lives. Yet progress still needs to be made. And it must be made faster, especially for women of color.

There are many reasons for this. Some of it is sexism, but there are also many cultural factors. The way we speak, for example — ‘sissing’ or ‘fucking’ — is damaging to the image of women. We can make a difference by changing our language, which is why the feminist movement has worked so hard to deconstruct gender stereotypes and normalize more inclusive terms.

We can make a difference at work, too, by supporting the career aspirations of women and encouraging more women to be leaders in their organizations. We can also help them curb bias in hiring and promotion processes, practice allyship and unlock their power to influence the culture of their teams.

The most important way we can continue to advance women is by tackling the root causes of inequality. These include the inequalities between men and women, racial and ethnic disparities and the persistently unequal opportunity to achieve economic prosperity.

In addition, we must continue to fight for every woman’s right to access reproductive and sexual health services; to choose how many children to have and when; to be free from violence including rape and female genital mutilation; and to participate in local government, which is crucial to democratic governance.

As we look to the future, it is imperative that we understand that there are as many ways of being a woman as there are women in the world. Some of these are the result of socialization, but others can be a product of genetics and biology. For example, we can now define a woman as an adult human who has two related functions: the production, storage and delivery of eggs and the gestation of another person.

These are the definitions that biologists have come up with, and they describe something fundamental about what it means to be a woman. These are the same definitions that scientists have been working with for centuries, but now we know more than ever that these are not universal. Some people don’t have ovaries, and they can’t become pregnant. But these exceptions do not invalidate the basic truth that it is of a woman’s nature to become pregnant and to bear children. Ultimately, a woman’s identity is determined by the function of her body, not the sex of her body parts.