The United States still operates under a system, which treats women as second-class citizens with oppression contingent on their race.

While most women in the U.S. don’t have to ask for their father’s permission for everyday decisions or live in fear of having their lives taken due to wanting an education etc. women here still face serious oppression.

Systemic oppression is alive and well; take your pick from the following:

• Not being able to break the glass ceiling in certain fields
• Facing systemic misogyny seen in the workplace and in pornography along with the culture it cultivates
• Facing wage disparity
• Encountering poor to non-existent maternity leave for working women
• Facing cat calling everyday
• Living in a society which employs rape culture
• Having anti-abortion laws and scare tactics
• Living with normalized violence against women
• Having the commodification of women of color by corporations

The list of horrors, that ultimately end up in death for thousands of women goes on and on.

The thing is, a lot of men and white women in some cases probably don’t notice these things because they have probably benefitted from said oppression.

There are women living in the United States who live in a patriarchal home where what the father says goes.

For some, this means not getting a high school or college education and helping the household by joining the workforce.

For others, this means not having a social life or having to adjust their way of dress as to not disrespect the father figure.

According to the Violence Policy Center as of Sept. 2015, 1,600 women die in one year at the hands of men.

This study found that black women were killed at twice the rate of white women.

When we have someone like Donald Trump normalizing rape culture and men, like his sons, telling women that workplace harassment is something women need to get used to, we can’t afford to erase our experiences.

There is a real patriarchy that still needs to be slain in our home turf and it is dangerous to erase our experiences.

However, it is time that western feminism wakes up acknowledges the plight of women who do not look like its followers; it’s time to be inclusive.

As a whole, we should use our privilege to help women do not have the same advantages that we have around the world.

We need to stand in solidarity and we need to take action while making sure that we stand together to heal the wounds of all our women back home.