Only two months ago, I was sexually harassed by a man at the store when I came in to grab a snack for my driver’s education class. He looked no older than forty. His eyes peered at me.

I was terrified, but also confused. When something like this happens to women, you feel a surge of shock and confusion: “Is this actually happening?” In your normal day-to-day life, you don’t think much about the possibility of it happening to you, but when it does, it’s a slap in the face, a harsh reminder of your reality.

As I walked out, I noticed an older woman behind me. I thought she was just exiting with me, so I kept walking until I felt a hand on my shoulder. “I’ll walk you back. I don’t want any more creeps sniffing after you.”

We walked back, the woman occasionally turning back to be sure no one was following behind us. After we reached my driver’s school, she left. I’ll never see the woman again, but her small act of kindness made me feel safer. It seems small, but after being sexually harassed, it felt like everything to me.

It’s no secret that the world hates women. The hatred of women has been ingrained in our society. This hatred of women leaves us feeling hopeless for any sense of support or community.

While it’s important to be aware of all the evils that happen to women daily, it’s also crucial that we recognize the community women share with each other. When we come together, we are capable of creating and sharing new ideas and working towards a better future for women and girls everywhere. Female solidarity among all women is valuable to a collective feminist cause and revolution. 

From the past to the present, women have been in solidarity with each other to reach common goals. In political activism, working together to gain rights for women globally. Female solidarity is seen in personal scenarios where women rely on each other for protection against violence.

Women granting other women safety and or protection is common between us, because we’re almost always the only ones giving it to women. When men harass women on the street or on a public bus, you can see videos of men ignoring it or laughing along. But women are often the only ones defending women; this isn’t a coincidence, it’s because we know that we have each other in this society. 

Women, since childhood, use the restroom together in groups. On dates, we text each other’s locations. Guess who we turn to when men harm us?

Consciously and subconsciously, we rely on women to keep us safe. You see it in real life and in stories on the news. But we’re facing a great tragedy between us; we’re being pushed to hate each other, in the best interest of men.

Women are taught to view other women through female socialization. We see it in films, TV, novels, everywhere you look. Painted in a bad light for multiple reasons, ranging from “stealing one’s man,” all to women being written as being less intelligent and inferior to men, devaluing female friendships as being filled with drama, while friend groups with men are “chill.”

All of this content we’re being forced to consume is an intentional device. Misogynists know that when women are busy fighting each other, they don’t even consider what they can do together. They know when women come together, we can accomplish anything. 

In recent times, we see women coming together to bond over experiences and raise consciousness about the abuse they’ve experienced. We’ve seen this with the MeToo movement in the mid-2010s. Women from all over the world speak out against sexual abuse in Hollywood and in the workplace.

Female solidarity is a beautiful expression between women and girls. It has many different faces and expressions. From two women helping another coworker being harassed, protesting together for the same cause, and as simple as supporting another woman’s work.

Women’s friendships with other women are devalued because the idea of women being in community and support is a direct threat to the misogynistic power structure. Patriarchy thrives when women feel powerless, and suffers when we pick each other up. As women, we don’t have to like each other; we can even hate other women, but for our liberation, it’s either all of us or none of us.