Delaware women need to come together more than ever

In a time when our political and cultural climate is shifting more than ever, Delaware women need to rise up, together. There’s not a day that passes as of late where discrimination, alienation and appropriation isn’t being served to minorities and women.

Our bodies. Our children’s lunches. Our neighborhoods. Our parenting. Our sexuality.

All of our rights are at stake in this era. The question isn’t what is this current administration going to do about it.

They’ve proven incapable of honoring the beauty and brilliance that women bring to the table. So, the question becomes, what are we, as women, going to do to fight for our rights?

Many of us have marched, posted on social media and celebrated “A Day Without Women,” but what’s next?

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How do we continue to fight this constant battle? How should we position ourselves for liberation? How do we raise our daughters and nieces to become advocates for themselves? How do we protect ourselves and our bodies from the harsh realities of the world?

Just last year, we all felt the pain of the death of a teenage girl at Howard High School after being killed in a bathroom, and only just recently frequent kidnappings amongst young girls and women have popped up in Delaware.

Let’s not forget the African-American girls in D.C. who have been missing who finally received some well-deserved and overdue media attention. We are still in need of a strategy to overcome the often oppressive, violent, sexist, media-driven and patriarchal society we live in. The solution for this truly starts from within. We can protest all we want. We can wear red in solidarity. We can take off from work.

But true liberation and empowerment are birthed from within. It can’t be found in the media, money or men. It can’t be found in politics, protest or picket signs.

Of course, we need a movement, leaders, vision and action to bring liberation to fruition for women, but we also are in need of something deeper to coincide with that. For such a time as this, calls for us as women, mothers, wives, sisters and friends to come together fiercely and to get ourselves together holistically. We must take care of ourselves in a society that appears to devalue the most fundamental parts of who we are daily.

As a confidence coach for women, I encourage you to not only stand up for women alongside other women but to also practice self-care in the midst of it all. I encourage you to find ways daily to love on yourself and remind other women to do the same. I encourage you to find even more women to team up with who believe fiercely in the empowerment of women and bring that healing, love and light to the rest of the world.

We are in desperate need of it.

Taria Pritchett is a speaker, educator, and Confidence Coach for Women in Delaware.