Women’s History Month: Holding space, making space, and speaking up

March is Women’s History Month, a time to honor the bold, brilliant, and relentless women who have shaped our world. But this year, the air is thick with an unsettling reality and that reality is revolving around our identities, our histories, and having our contributions challenged, erased, and or rewritten.

As I sat at my desk thinking about all that’s happening in the world of women, I felt compelled to share this opinion.

In past legislative sessions we have seen how Florida passed laws that restrict how race and gender are taught in schools. The rejection or alteration of AP African-American studies, book bans targeting diverse voices, and restrictions on discussions of gender identity and history in classrooms are all direct attacks on the ability to recognize and honor the full contributions of women in history.

This erasure disproportionately affects women of color, LGBTQ+ women, and those who have fought for social justice.

Today, we are trying to understand the onslaught of federal funding freezes. In many cases, these federal dollars were going toward programs benefiting women and families. Major cuts have occurred and more are underway that are going to impact social services, childcare support, and maternal health funding, programs that disproportionately impact women, particularly single mothers and working-class families.

Florida has also experienced budget cuts to programs that provide vital resources to women, including housing assistance, food security, Medicaid and workforce training.

There also is a dangerous trend sweeping through our state and nation, identified as identity scrubbing. It is a calculated attempt to silence our voices, blur our truths, and strip us of our rightful place in history. We cannot allow it.

Recently, a friend gifted me a perfume for my birthday called HER. The scent is layered—bold yet soft, powerful yet elegant. It reminded me of the essence of womanhood itself: ever-evolving, ever-present, impossible to ignore.

It made me think about how we, as women, shift and grow through the many roles we hold. We are nurturers, leaders, fighters, visionaries. We build, we transform, and we hold the world together. But right now, we are being asked—no, expected—to shrink, to be quiet, to accept the slow erosion of our narratives.

Let me be clear: our silence is not an option. Silence gives consent. Silence allows erasure. Silence makes space for regression. We must speak boldly and loudly. We must create space and hold space for ourselves, for the women who came before us, and for the generations who will follow.

We must gather in rooms where decisions are made and refuse to be ignored. We must have the hard conversations, challenge the systems that seek to diminish us, and ensure that our stories remain intact, not just in history books but in policy, in leadership, in culture, and in every corner of our communities.

I have seen firsthand the power of women shaping cities, policies, and movements right here in Tallahassee. Women from all walks of life working in different sectors showing up to make a difference.

When we organize, strategize, and refuse to be sidelined there is nothing we cannot do, and we can and will change the world. Women have always been the backbone of Tallahassee and cities across this nation. We have fought for justice, built economic power, and nurtured communities. We cannot and will not go back.

So, here’s the call to action: Stand up. Speak out. Challenge the rewriting and recreation of history.

Challenge laws and policies that tend to forget those who are most vulnerable, push back against the creation of narratives that are narrow and exclusive.

Reject these narratives, the people and the policies that seek to erase or scrub women from it. Take your place at the table. Better yet, how about we build a new one. Have the conversations that make people uncomfortable. Hold space for truth.

We are HER. We are here. And we are not going anywhere.

Talethia Edwards is executive director at Good News Outreach in Tallahassee and an urban planner and community organizer in the city.

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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Women’s History: Holding space, making space, speaking up | Opinion