I always believed womanhood was a journey rather than an identity.

When I was born, I wasn’t a woman, but a blank canvas. But because of my sex, I was already assigned the role of a woman before I could even pronounce my name. The physician who tended to me likely wondered what kind of husband I would have in the future, and my parents probably speculated how many children I would give birth to someday, even when they only held a creature with no sense of self-identity in their arms.

As I grew up, I steadily became conscious of the expectations people had of women, and what constituted a woman in the first place. Time and time again, I was told that the most fundamental part of being a woman is the ability to bear children—how odd that a woman’s identity is tethered to her ability to create something she can only do with the “assistance” of a man, and by extension, making her identity reliant on a man’s presence. Not to mention, what about women who want to have children but can’t? Were they any less woman than those who could? Was this the kind of fate women were condemned to? To be mothers and servants and nothing else? 

It’s unnerving that something you didn’t even choose dictates how you should live your entire life. Unfortunately, there are still people in the world who are not regarded as women, despite having long since decided to follow the path of womanhood. Indeed, transwomen are women. It is superfluous to place the adjective “real” before women since it implies that there are faux women, which there aren’t—a woman either is or isn’t, and transwomen are.

Given that it’s National Women’s Month, I’m specifically bringing this up in light of the plethora of viewpoints and claims I’ve read online recently about how transwomen allegedly shouldn’t be included in the celebrations since they don’t share the struggles of assigned female at birth (AFAB) women. Truly, it’s unsettling that instead of uplifting fellow women for their bravery and self-discovery, there are women (and men, who for some reason believe that their opinions are of significance) who choose to ostracize women who have already gone through significant obstacles along the journey of womanhood.

Regretfully, trans-exclusionary radical feminists (TERFs) frequently argue that transwomen have not experienced the same tribulations compared to what they consider to be “biological” women. I’ve always thought this argument was absurd. When has becoming a woman meant competing for who was more oppressed?  It’s evident that every woman lives in a patriarchal society; no one is exempt, and it has never been a competition. Every woman has experienced some form of injury from a male, from the systems established by men, or regrettably, from internal misogyny among women, which is also directly brought on by men’s influence.

As a result, more people need to understand that misogynistic beliefs are the core cause of transphobia—scratch a transphobe and a misogynist bleeds. Because men established the system of what constitutes a woman in their blinded privileged pedestals, men are mostly the ones who believe they are qualified to decide what defines a woman. Further, people also need to understand that transphobia harms ALL women. For instance, the fake news that circulated on Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, who was accused of being assigned male at birth (AMAB) and causing many to believe that it was unfair of her to compete in women’s sports at the Paris Olympics; such misleading information was spread due to her “masculine” features, and everybody was quick to believe it. 

Personally, I find it frustrating how there are still people in this day and age who seem to be averse to women who don’t “fit” the suffocating beauty standards imposed by society, going as far as to strip a woman of her own womanhood. That case was detrimental to all women because, in a patriarchal society, women’s struggles will always converge, and those who despise women will believe anything with little to no backing so long as it supports their outdated and close-minded beliefs.

However, to claim that all women have experienced the same hardships may be naive. While it’s true that transwomen have encountered different hurdles compared to AFAB women, and vice versa, this diversity should strengthen, not divide us. Regardless of how their journey unfolded thus far, all women can honor and replicate the courage of Marsha P. Johnson, who led the charge for equal rights for homeless LGBTQIA+ youth, transgender people, and those affected by HIV/AIDS, and they can all sympathize with Hunter Schafer when she was unjustly given a passport that identified her as male under Trump’s autocratic administration. The ongoing prejudice faced by trans women, despite their sustained activism, demands a united front from all women. Following the example of Sen. Risa Hontiveros who champions the SOGIE Equality Bill to safeguard LGBTQIA+ rights in the Philippines, we must actively support each other.

Undoubtedly, a celebration as empowering as National Women’s Month was never intended to be a contest to see who was more mistreated. Honoring transwomen during National Women’s Month will not take away the rights and accomplishments of AFAB women. Instead, this celebration is intended to raise awareness of women’s achievements and contributions to society, as well as to unite all women in their plights, pleasures, hopes, and aspirations.

Since womanhood is a journey that all women navigate at their own pace, femininity is fundamentally inclusive, empowering, and always in favor of all women. One may find solace in being a woman amidst the hardships we face daily, especially those who, instead of viewing womanhood as a journey, view it as finally having arrived home.