The Ice and the Ceiling: Why This Women’s History Month We Refuse to Be Quiet

As we mark Women’s History Month, we are often told to look back. We are asked to admire the grainy photographs of suffragists marching, to tip our hats to the "first women" who broke barriers, and to celebrate how "far we’ve come."

But here is the reality of 2026: We are still living with the boot of the patriarchy on our necks. And if we are going to make history, rather than just read about it, we need to stop whispering and start screaming.

We don’t have to look to the history books for evidence of the fight. We only have to look at the headlines from the last few weeks. Our women’s hockey team, the best in the world, brought home the gold medal. They trained for years. They sacrificed their bodies. They achieved the pinnacle of their sport. And how were they treated by the President of the United States?

Not as champions. Not as heroes. They were treated as lesser. They were made into a mockery.

In that moment, the message was crystal clear to women everywhere: no matter how high you climb, no matter how much gold you hang around your neck, there will still be powerful men who refuse to see your value. They will still try to shrink you, to laugh at you, to remind you that in their eyes, you do not truly belong on that ice, or in that room.

This is the atmosphere we breathe every day. It is the constant, low-grade hum of having to prove we exist, that we matter, that our bodies are our own.

That is why this year, for Women’s History Month, I am not asking for permission. I am not asking to be liked.

We are done asking. We need to take up space. We need to be loud. We need to be unapologetic. The days of waiting politely for our rights to be restored are over. They were stripped away from us, piece by piece, by legislators who have never spent a day worrying about their own autonomy. We cannot be polite while they decide what happens to our bodies, our paychecks, and our futures.

We must demand a seat at the table where our autonomy is being decided. And if the room is full? We don't wait for a chair to be offered. We stand up tall and defiantly. We bring a megaphone. We make sure that our voices are so loud, so persistent, and so undeniable that they cannot govern without us.

That glass ceiling we keep hearing about? It isn’t cracked anymore; it’s reinforced steel. But steel can be bent with enough heat. And the heat is going to come from us, from our organizing, our voting, and our refusal to be silent.

So this month, let us honor the women who came before us by being the women our future will need. Let’s be the ones who finally shatter the ice and the ceiling.

Stand up. Be loud. Take up space. And let’s crush the patriarchy, once and for all.

In solidarity and defiance,

Erin Sutka