How are our lives and actions shaped by gender identity? This question has become particularly relevant, and at times deeply frustrating in light of my recent experiences this semester. In my NYU Accra courses African Women Speak and Globalization & The Developing World, we have discussed how notions of femininity and womanhood vary across class, race, religion and sexual orientation, among other factors, and the importance of acknowledging the diversity of women’s experiences. At the same time, the struggle against gender inequality serves as a unifying factor, even though such inequities may manifest in different forms.

A community RA at NYU Accra described to us that while she grew up “with her books,” focusing on education and planning to provide for herself, not many women around her shared that mentality. She also raised a very poignant question: are women educating other women? In a poem she wrote, she asked, “Are we teaching our children to be different? Are we teaching our daughters and sons to be better people?” How can each of us, in our own way, uproot the very structures of inequality?

The US celebration of Women’s History Month drew to a close with the end of March. Women’s History Month, established in 1987, serves as a reminder of the vital role that women play in our society and why women’s voices and perspectives must be woven into the broader historical narrative. We remember individuals such as Helen Keller, Rosa Parks, Dolores Huerta and Susan B. Anthony because they chose uncharted paths, offering alternative narratives of what it means to be a woman, rather than submitting to societal expectations and frameworks.

As women, we should most definitely break through glass ceilings. We should show our worth, strength and intelligence in academic, professional and personal settings. But let us not stop there; let’s further break down the very system in which those ceilings exist. As feminist thinkers Antoinette Fouque, Carol Ehrlich and many others have eloquently expressed, it is feminist not to rise to positions equal to those held by men and be treated as men, but rather to subvert the systems of inequality. By limiting ourselves to dream of rising to the top of the existing power structures, women “[maintain], in an inverted form, the dominant values [of society]. Inversion does not facilitate the passage to another kind of structure.”

To notice how you treat the people in your life on the basis of gender, race, occupation or religion; to check your privilege; to pay your female and male employees fair and equal wages for the same positions; to strive to better not only your position but to combat the structures that push others down as well: those are ways of being feminist, ways to utilize your agency. We must understand that our actions are not fully bound by social systems and structures.

Women who achieve parity with men, whether political, academic, or otherwise, without questioning the patriarchal system in which they have personally advanced, do not achieve larger feminist gains or advance collective equality. Those women who have achieved some personal equality with men, whose lifestyles benefit from the exploitation or lesser treatment of other women, by extension support the continuation of systemic inequality that feminism acknowledges and seeks to dismantle.

It is impossible to presume that a single month could ever pay full tribute to the generations of women who have served or sacrificed for their communities and families. One month can never fully tackle the inherent complexity of the women whom we seek to remember and commemorate. However, there remains tremendous value in Women’s History Month. As the National Women’s History Project states on its website:

“To ignore the vital role that women’s dreams and accomplishments play in our own lives would be a great mistake. We draw strength and inspiration from those who came before us.”

So after the close of Women’s History Month, let’s take a moment to pause and critically reflect upon our own notions of womanhood. What should womanhood mean? How can we challenge existing notions of womanhood to create a more vibrant interpretation? As our Community RA at NYU Accra reminded us, “Women should see themselves as holding their own destiny.”