I'm sorry. People talk as if women’s safety is something governments eventually “figure out,” like a policy glitch that just needs an update. Hi
I’m sorry.
People talk as if women’s safety is something governments eventually “figure out,” like a policy glitch that just needs an update.
History doesn’t tell that story.
Photo by cottonbro studio
It tells another truth — one far less convenient:
Women’s safety has never been government-first work.
It has never been medical-first work.
It has never been politician-first work.
Every shift.
Every crack in the wall.
Every new language for abuse, coercion, and harm…
Started with women.
Women naming what hurt.
Women noticing patterns.
Women refusing silence.
Women carrying truth through ridicule, punishment, exile, and loss.
Professionals came later.
Institutions came later.
Legislation came later.
Women came first.
Over and over again.
Governments did not wake up compassionate. Not ONE.
They responded because women organized.
They responded because women marched, testified, cried, wrote, taught, sheltered, protected, prayed, documented, and refused to disappear.
They responded because Survivors refused to collapse quietly.
They responded because the truth became too loud to hide.
Not because lawmakers suddenly found empathy.
Not because the medical system suddenly understood trauma.
Not because political leaders felt called by conscience.
But because women — across generations — refused to surrender our humanity.
This work is inheritance
Women’s rights are not an “upgrade” of civilization.
They are inheritance.
Hard-earned.
Fought-for.
Paid for — in lives, in bodies, in isolation, in grief.
And inheritance does not stay alive on autopilot.
When you inherit something precious — land, jewelry, an old quilt, a family story — you don’t toss it into a closet and hope it survives.
You:
- care for it
- protect it from people who don’t value it
- repair what time has worn down
- teach the next generation how to hold it carefully
- build on it so it grows instead of fading
That is how inheritance lives.
Women’s safety is the same.
If we assume the courts will protect it,
If we assume the hospitals will honor it,
If we assume politicians will guard it,
we will lose ground.
Because systems — especially those shaped by male entitlement — do not hand over protection freely.
Systems resist.
Systems delay.
Systems forget.
Systems minimize.
And far too often, individual men within those systems will give women nothing unless demanded, documented, pushed, challenged, and watched.
This movement belongs to women
We carry this like inheritance not because we asked for the burden — but because history placed it in our hands and said:
They will not save you.
Build the world you need.
And we have.
Shelters.
Advocacy networks.
Language for gaslighting and coercive control.
Hotlines.
Books.
Support groups.
Legal strategies.
Community circles.
Spaces that protect the boundaries of female human beings.
Wisdom passed quietly between women when institutions refused to hear us.
We did that.
Demand the world you deserve
We honor our inheritance by staying awake and aware.
We honor it by:
- insisting that girls grow up in truth, not silence
- rejecting shame narratives that send women back into danger
- training our communities to recognize abuse early
- protecting sacred spaces where women can speak without punishment
- supporting Survivors who are tired, shaken, and still showing up anyway
We do not wait politely for permission.
We demand — without apology — a world where women:
- are safe in our bodies
- are safe in our homes
- are safe in our faith spaces
- are safe in our workplaces
- are safe in our aging
- are safe in our truth
Because inheritance is tended.
And we are caretakers now.
We build.
We guard.
We pass it forward stronger than we received it.
Not because governments lead.
But because women do.
Always have.
And — until the day the world fully loves us the way it loves male comfort and male power — we will keep leading.
With clarity.
With courage.
With expectation.
And yes — with the steady, unshakable demand:
Give us the world we deserve.