My Birthday Wish List on International Women’s Day

Tomorrow is my 38th birthday. It’s nothing all that special and it doesn’t check off any boxes on the list of milestones. But I’m here, I’m healthy, and that is something to be celebrated.

Since my birthday is tomorrow and today is International Women’s Day I thought it fitting to create a wish list of sorts. These things, however, are not anything that I want for myself. Well, I do want them, but I want them for all of us. These are my wishes for the women of our country and our world.

So, in no particular order, this my wish list.

• When a woman makes an accusation of assault or sexual violence, believe her.
• I want everyone to send a letter to Dr. Christine Blasey-Ford at Palo Alto University in California and tell her, “We see you. We haven’t forgotten about you. You are a brave, wonderful woman.” While you’re at it, mail one to Anita Hill as well.
• I want government to stop obsessing over my uterus and what may or may not come out of it.
• If you see a woman breastfeeding her baby in public, do not question her motives. Simply give her a smile and a nod of encouragement and be on with your day.
• I want the global gag rule to be lifted once and for all.
• I wish insurance companies to cover maternity care, delivery, and postpartum care at 100%, no cost to families. That includes covering birth and postpartum doulas for every woman that wants one.
• I want to see more women on Instagram teaching how to change a tire and not how to do the perfect top bun.
• I want the United States to give up its first place ranking for the most maternal deaths in the developed world.
• I want women and girls all over the globe to have access to period products so that they can live a normal life and not have to drop out of school because of a natural function of their bodies.
• I want the cesarian section rate to go back down to a more medically appropriate rate (which for the United States should be around 15%).
• I want the winning Unites States women's soccer team to be paid the same amount of goddamn money, if not MORE, than the losing men’s team.
• When black women go to the hospital and they tell you they are in pain, believe them.
• And while we’re at it, I want black women to not die during and after childbirth at rates four times higher than their white counterparts.
• I want universal, paid parental leave.
• I want my daughters to grow up in a world where they are judged by the content of their character and not by the length of their skirt.
• And I want to see a woman inaugurated as President of the United States before I die.

These are just a few things on my wish list. I don’t think it is too much to ask.