For decades women have been striving to achieve equality. According to research, women have been brushed off to the side and treated as irrelevant. Presumably, this is found to be a valid statement because of the timeline that women’s congressional movements. This is tracking back to the year 1769, which was the first recognized act that proved to be the beginning of women being lessened as human beings. This was the first year that documented women being stripped of their equal human rights. In the 1769, women were required by the newly adapted English law, which decreed women to understand that they were unlawful if they were to keep their own earnings. This decree also banned women from owning their own property. In 1777, a law passed in every state to inform the nation that if you were a woman, you were not allowed to vote.

It wasn’t until 1939 that women could own property, however this was only legal in Mississippi and the women would not own their own property unless their husband said it was okay to do so.  In 1848 in New York, 300 men and women joined together and signed the Declaration of Sentiments, which was the first act to stop the discrimination against women. It wasn’t until 1868 that this declaration, the 14^th Amendment, was passed.

Between 1869 and 1873 women were at a constant battle to be associated with practices of the law in many ways. The unexpected shift of change took wave in 1887. Argonia, Kansas, was the home of the first women elected as mayor of any American town in the U.S. There have been many movements between 1887 and 2018.

A wave of women felt that they had been hushed when President Donald Trump was elected in November 2016. Not only were women losing their voices in the world, they were also being deemed as a lesser importance and were objectified by the president. On Oct. 7, 2016, a recording leaked of President Trumps’ explanation on his personal views to “handle women.” President Trump explained to the host of Access Hollywood about a married woman he pursued.

From the transcript of President Trumps’ experience in 2005, he admitted to recognizing the women.

“Yeah, that’s her with the gold. I better use some Tic Tacs just in case I start kissing her. You know, I’m automatically attracted to beautiful. I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.” He said.

As soon as this content emerged to the public, hundreds of women began to report sexual harassment, 8 out of 10, out of hundreds, were hushed. Not too long after Trump was elected as president of the U.S., the PussyHat Project emerged.

In 2016, Jayna Zweiman gathered with her friend Krista Suh to take crochet classes to help her overcome her boredom whilst recovering from a serious injury. They loved it. They were planning to walk in the Womens Rights March in Washington D.C around January of 2017. The cold weather sparked their inspiration to come up with some stylish hats to keep their heads warm during the march. Shortly after their inspiration struck, they met with Little Knittery owner Kat Coyle to come up with a design for their hats.

According to the PussyHat website, the name Pussyhat was chosen in part as a protest against vulgar comments Trump made about the freedom

“He felt to grab women’s genitals, to de-stigmatize the word ‘pussy’ and transform it into one of empowerment, and to highlight the design of the hat’s ’pussycat ears’.” Jayna Zweimen said on the PussyHat website.”‘Pussy’ is a derogatory term not just about specific genitalia, but also about the feminine. We want to reclaim the term as a means of female empowerment. Pussyhat is about speaking up for body autonomy and fighting against abuses of power.”

Initially, women are re-shaping the offensive term and recycling it as armor to fight fair in society.

This project was acclaimed to have given women their voices back and a sense of empowerment and control over their own bodies. However, sexual abuse continues to hush women’s voices.

According to statistics, one in five women and one in 71 men will be raped at some point in their lives, which is why the #MeToo movement was coined in 2006 by activist, Tarana Burke. This movement didn’t take off until 2017 when a celebrity used the famous hashtag on her post. This trailed into the Harvey Weinstein, the Hollywood producer, who was reported for sexual misconduct allegations in which he was accused of sexually assaulting 84 women.

The unfortunate truth is that throughout history, women were forced to endure drastic measures, such as protests and marches, simply to obtain their equal rights, but if you were born a male you were automatically gifted these rights.

The most recent win of the 2018 midterm elections, which gifted the U.S. with the “women’s touch” that has been explained in various ways by President Trump. Essentially, women are where they should be in power.

Wave of change introducing women who won the elections and are now seated in congress are also women of diverse backgrounds, including Ayanna Pressley, Massachusetts’ first black congresswoman; Jahana Hayes, Connecticut’s first black congresswoman; Deb Haaland and Sharice Davids; first Native American congresswomen; Janet Mills, Maine’s first woman governor; Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the youngest woman elected to congress at 29 years old; Minnesota’s Ilhan Omar and Michigan’s Rashida Tlaib, the first Muslim women in congress; Michelle Lujan Grisham, New Mexico’s first Latina governor; Marsha Blackburn, Tennessee’s first woman senator; Abby Finkenauer and Cindy Axne, the first women elected to the house from Iowa; Kristi Noem, the first female governor in South Dakota and Veronica Escobar and Sylvia Garcia, Texas’ first Latinas elected to congress.

During the midterm election in 2018 presumed that women will, now forth, represent 2/3 of the districts that democrats have successfully flipped.

“The surge was driven largely by Democrats as the party took over house control. Democrats account for 84 of 96 women set to serve in the house so far, including 30 of the 31 newcomers,” according to USA Today analysis.

Nine women have won governors seats for their states. Currently, 107 out of 535 seats in congress are taken by women in 2018. This number is predicted to continue to increase by the 2019 election. Seventy-two women out of 312 seats hold Statewide Elective Executive office seats. Women hold 1,785 seats, out of 7,383 state legislative seats.

Women will continue to silence the pressured oppression that is continuously forced upon them.

Bayley Baker, senior mass media major, is thrilled about the new wave of representation.

“It’s about time congress looks more like our nation. The United States population is made up of 50 percent women, so it only makes sense for more women to represent the American people in D.C. Beyond that, it’s exciting to see more people of color and LGBTQIA+ folks elected as well,” Baker said. “I feel as though we truly have a more representative body of legislators nationwide as a result of this election. The momentum of the last two years finally paid off last week and I’m hopeful for where this trajectory will take us in 2020.”