Recently, there have been many conversations and misunderstanding regarding the Million Women March and what they marched for. While those who marched think of it as the beginning of a major social movement in America, those who did not express embarrassment. The question is: What are they embarrassed of exactly?

The march was not an attempt to prove women’s dominance over men. Those who believe that cannot even begin to comprehend the immensity of beliefs that were being marched for on January 21. Those who marched marched for LGBTQ rights. They marched against the border proposal. They marched to protect the environment from new administration threatening to destroy it. They marched against basic human rights violations. They marched for so much more than just women.

The divide in our country is only growing larger as people misconstrue what feminism is.

It is no secret that the movement is oftentimes considered a way for women to put down men, but that is only the small-minded, misguided version of it.

However, in Gina Davis’s “I am a female and I am so over feminists” blog post on The Odyssey Online, every reason why you should not be a feminist is brought to light when equality should be a common goal for all. Thanks to anti-feminists like Davis, feminists continue to have to explain themselves.

As Davis said in her post, “I believe in myself as a powerful female and human being. However, I don’t believe that being a female entitles me to put down men and claim to be the ‘dominant’ gender.” This misinformed statement seems illegitimate considering that the Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines feminism as: “the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes.”

Gloria Steinem, a journalist and political activist, has played a major role in the rally for a more equitable society. She became nationally recognized in the 1960s as a leader of feminism. Steinem rightfully defined feminism for herself when she said, “A feminist is anyone who recognizes the equality and full humanity of women and men.”

There is still so much to fight for in the movement toward equality between men and women. The glass ceiling is real. It is because of women like Steinem that women like Sheryl Sandberg can continue on with the mission for feminism. In her popular book, Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead, Sandberg addresses the lack of women in government and business leadership positions. It targets women who want to achieve their career goals as well as men who want to help create an even-handed society. In the book, she writes, “We call our little girls bossy. Go to a playground; little girls get called bossy all the time – a word that’s almost never used for boys – and that leads directly to the problems women face in the workforce.”

As much as so many people want this to be, this is not an attempt to put down men and prove women’s dominance, or whatever it is that everyone thinks feminism is. This is merely an attempt to tear down the preconceived notion that the sole purpose of the feminist movement is to prove that women are better than men. Women’s strength does not diminish men’s strength, and it is about time society comes to terms with it.