She has a dream

By Lucien Jeon

Twelve score and four years ago, our founding fathers altered the course of history with the signing of a document that guaranteed the life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness for man in the then newly declared nation of America. It was a momentous occasion for all to witness. But seventy prolonged years passed, and we realized that the men who had written the foundations of our country never once included the word “women” in their declaration of freedom. Far too long after the founding of our nation, at the Seneca Falls convention, a daring woman, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, published the “Declaration of Sentiments,” where she declared America as a country in which “all men and women are created equal.”

Two hundred forty-eight years later, women are still denied true equality. The woman still finds herself as a counterpart to the man, and not her own person. She lives chained to a humble home amid a bustling city. She is told to dig a lake with her bare hands without breaking a single nail, while he is given an excavator to do the same. She must scream to be heard in a room where all a man has to do is whisper. 

Women should have been promised equality from the beginning of time, for the men mightier than God who founded the nation came from a woman, his mother. Women must be nurturing mothers, caring wives, loyal sisters, and obedient daughters. We must play every role assigned to us. Yet, we endure all of this burden while simultaneously living in a man’s world. It is clear that when America was formed, men were designed to be made from iron, while women were to be made of plastic. In our nation, men are iron. He is able to be melted down over and over again to build towers, make tools, and create shackles and chains. He is able to become the bars of a prison that encloses women in their jail of domesticity. Our cities are built with a magnetic ceiling, which only attracts other metals. For women, we are plastic. We were not created with the intention of fulfilling a greater and more permanent role. We are seen as temporary and only there for a single use. We are thrown into landfills once our purpose has been fulfilled. And so, we have come to abolish the so-called role and purpose that a woman should have. Women of today are to be the new designers, architects, and engineers. 

We’ve come today to celebrate the women of history. We have come a long way in our fight for equality. From Abigail Adams to Sojourner Truth, women have constantly been working up a steep slope to equality. America had us fooled with the promises of Rosie the Riveter and the limitless potential of women, only for that to be taken once again. Today, we want equality that will outlive us. Today, we want change that will become greater than the sum of each of us. Today, we want women to never be recognized as inferior ever again. 

I have a dream that one day, “like a girl” will not be an insult. 

I have a dream that no young girl will ever have fewer opportunities because of her gender. 

I have a dream that the woman will be able to have control over her own body, her own mind, and her own existence. 

And when this happens, as Elizabeth Cady Stanton said one hundred seventy-six years ago, “all men and women [will] be created equal.”