“I moved on her like a b!$h but I couldn’t get there. And she was married… Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.. Grab them by the p*##y. You can do anything,” –Donald Trump, recorded during an interview in 2005.

Women all over the world, including Colombia, are regularly subjected to violence, oppression and abuse. This abuse has been publicly detailed and is so commonplace, that figures as prominent as President of the United States have demeaned and assaulted women. Unfortunately, this behavior is still seen as normal or acceptable.  However, women are resisting this treatment and fighting for equality.

“Women have been always very brave in the world and in history, no one has ever cared. But right now we have to fight for our rights and we are making it,” Ivana Mejia, TCS 5th grader, said.

Women are aware of the injustice by society’s bias towards men. The fact that for every dollar that a man earns, a woman earns only about 75 cents, is only one of many examples of this inequality.

“Women have been downtrodden for so many centuries, that I think, to say that it’s humanism doesn’t address the fact that there is already a power imbalance that needs to be recentered,”  Tamara Irons, TCS librarian, said.

In Colombia, these inequalities are even greater than some other countries as women suffer higher incidents per capita of violence and abuse here. Between the beginning of 2014 and the end of October 2015 there were 1,481 femicides, according to the Institute of Legal Medicine. On the other hand, a report from the National Police indicates that in the same time period there was a total of 123,399 cases of intrafamily violence, of which 103,046 were against a woman.

“I think that the experience in Colombia for women, to be honest has been more difficult and I don’t feel that maybe is more subtle and not as obvious but they are more limitations on women in Colombia than in other countries I’ve lived in,” Alysa Perreras, 12th grade English teacher, said.

Historically all of the Colombian leaders have been men. Of 114 presidents and 11 vice-presidents, no woman has ever been appointed to one of these public charges. Women were given the right to vote in 1957, while men were able to vote since the start of democracy.

“In the history of our country there has not been a woman president, and that story is not because women do not want to, but because there hasn’t been a positive discrimination, and as we have not accessed to power, and because we haven’t come to power, it is much more difficult to fight against these male structures,” Luz Miriam Arango, 8th grade Social Studies teacher, said.

This is a society that is known for its extreme bias toward men, and the poor judicial actions in against women. In the case of Rosa Elvira Cely, where the Secretary of Defence blamed her in an official statement after she raped and abused. The judicial system failed her and many women like her.

“Our country, unfortunately, is a country that is marked by patriarchy, is a country that in the mentality, culture, and relations between men and women has placed women on the lower scale of the social ladder,” Arango said.

Apart from the lack of protection in Colombia and other similar countries, the media and political figures have not taken it seriously, meaning that they do not consider this as an actual problematic. As is the case of Rosa Elvira Cely where the media did not acknowledged this event for months after it happened.

“I think there is not enough discourse about it, there’s not enough conversation and so women when they do feel a sense of oppression whether it’s because they are expected to live up to certain beauty standards or because they are abused either mentally, physically, or emotionally, it’s very easily dismissed in Colombia,” Perreras said.

Other women have noticed that men tend to be more violent. Men perpetrate about 90 percent of the world’s homicides and start all of the wars. Because of this many see women as tranquility and peace.

“If only men existed, since they seek fights, there will never be peace, in other words, women are peace. In addition, women give life and are life,” Emiliana Velazquez, first grade TCS student, said.  

Feminism has a negative connotation among some members of older generations, but many younger women embrace both the word and its meaning. Many women consider feminism as a sisterhood, a label of respect and the providing the power to do anything. It is important to recognize the true definition since feminists have been fighting and will continue fighting for gender equality in society.

“Feminism is equity for both women and men,” Irons said.

For all the problematics and struggles as a community, woman persist and need to keep fighting for the inequality that still exists in the 21st century

“Women need to be fierce in life because they need to have equal rights as the boys, because women are equal to boys and can do the same things, and can do whatever they want,” Guadalupe Urrego, 2nd-grade student, said.