Lindy Verhage
Wed. March 8 marked International Women’s Day, first created as a time to celebrate women and their achievements. This year as part of the celebrations, the organizers of the Women’s March on Washington helped promote the observance of “A Day Without Women,” encouraging women to take the day off of work, avoid shopping, and wear the color red. The reasonings behind these actions were to foster solidarity with women across the globe who experience different socio-economic situations and to demonstrate the effects women have on society when they are not active participants.
A student at MC, sophomore Allison Lehn, participated in her own unique way, by remaining mute for the entire day.
“I was silent in honor of women whose voices are never heard,” Lehn said.
Inspired by the idea of living “A Day without Women” Lehn sought to amplify the voices of women across the globe by letting her own voice fall silent.
“I wanted to be able to allow people to realize what it’s like to not have a woman participate in a day because so often in the world there are girls who don’t have the same rights as us and aren’t allowed to speak so often, and if their voices go silent, mine should in honor of them too,” Lehn said.
Lehn’s silence not only had an impact on those around her, but also helped her to appreciate the gravity of her words.
“[Staying mute] helped me realize that there’s a lot more to speaking than words,” Lehn said.
For many others, the simple act of donning the color red demonstrated their commitment to celebrating women on this day.
“The color red is a revolutionary color and it’s always been an icon for labor movements,” Lehn said. “It symbolizes coming together and trying to make a change.”
While this past Wednesday celebrated women, there were some who criticized the event for excluding groups such as men. Looking forward, International Men’s Day, to help raise awareness for prostate cancer, is Sun. Nov. 19 and Lehn plans to continue lending her support for her fellow humans.
“Supporting each other as people is the most important thing,” Lehn said. “People tend to take people being excited for one another and empowering one another and make it as an oppression action which is the opposite of what it is.”
