“Women in White” stand out at State of the Union 

The State of the Union Address equates to the Oscars for politicians. Rather than the Dolby Theatre, we get to see some of the country’s most prominent figures taking their places on Capitol Hill to showcase their approval, or if a representative has contentions with the president, roll their eyes.

We, along with both chambers of Congress, get to see what kind of agenda the president plans to set for the year ahead and come to our own judgments about these ideas. 

The State of the Union provides an aspect of transparency between the people and the government, as well as between each branch of government.

This is particularly true of this year’s State of the Union as a daunting group of Democratic women sat in the benches sporting their pristine white outfits.

This powerful image during a State of the Union Address mired in controversy, speaks to this importance of this transparency.

This State of the Union was dramatic and vexed. However, it was worth the watch not just to catch controversial soundbites or hear Trump bolster the image of our military, but rather to take a look at who was in the audience. This, most importantly, included women asserting their place in government.

The color white is more that just a clean cut look. According to the Congressional Union for Women’s Suffrage “White, the emblem of purity, symbolizes the quality of our purpose.”

Trump said it himself, “Exactly one century after the Congress passed the Constitutional amendment giving women the right to vote, we also have more women serving in the Congress than ever before.”

For me, this was the most incredible image I have seen within any national political event. Watching this group of Democratic women—and not just wealthy white women, but a diverse group of women in terms of class, race, religion and sexual identity—take on the State of the Union in their suffragette white is the ultimate form of empowerment.

We know that representation matters, we know that promoting equality on the basis of gender and sex is beyond important, and we know that we are living in an age in which progressive change is inevitable.

In order to improve the world, we first have to improve the lower levels of society and become equal in our roots and our laws.

By seeing the highest amount of female representation in the U.S. Congress to date, it made me feel as if the world is one step closer to true equality.

Women and girls across the globe have continued to be systematically marginalized and rejected as being a part of humanity. The 116th Congress demands an end to that.

98 years ago, women in the U.S. were not allowed the right to vote. They had no voice in their legislation and were systematically denied equality.

We now have 102 women out of 435 representatives in our lower house and 25 women out of 100 representatives in our upper house. Although it doesn’t directly correlate with the true U.S. population (which is 50.8% female), we are getting close and we surely won’t stop here.

I find it fitting to say thank you to the women who fought for our right to vote and now to those who currently represent me and all the other women and girls in the U.S.

Women are not treated as equal in this country nor in other countries across the globe. By seeing the strength of women in our current Congress, a very powerful message has been sent: we are not going anywhere. Not in the U.S. nor across the globe.

As Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the second female to sit as a Supreme Court Justice claimed, “Women belong in all the places where decisions are being made.”

After seeing the display of empowered women at the State of the Union, there is no doubt in my mind that she could not have been more right about that.