Sixty-six women wore white suits adorned with gold and purple flowers while sitting stoically through the presidential address last Tuesday. 
These women in white held their applause and refused to jump from their seats as Trump promised to “Make America Great Again.” Female Republicans called for unity, but sadly did not unite with female Democrats in support of women’s rights. 
The white these Democrats donned represented the Women’s Suffrage Movement of the 1920’s. The Women’s Suffrage Movement gave women the right to vote and catapulted equal rights for women in America. 
The group said they were not protesting. Rather, they were showing support for Planned Parenthood, affordable health care, reproductive rights, equal pay, paid leave, affordable child care and the “lives free from fear and violence movement”. 
They were supporting the global causes that are dividing our nation. The white suits represented the voices of recent women’s marches and protests demanding equal rights for women, brown people, and the LGBT, as well as protection of religious freedom. 
If the president would not acknowledge the concerns of his constituents, it is nice to know that there are women in our government who did.

Shani Shay
Undeclared