This vote’s for you, Susan B.

This vote’s for every little girl who was told math wasn’t for girls and for every young woman who was told girls can’t grow up to be doctors or lawyers or engineers, astronauts or Presidents.

This vote’s for every woman who has ever had to moderate her voice or been told what or what not to wear.

This vote is for every little girl who was told she couldn’t be Bat Man for Halloween and for every little boy who was told he couldn’t be Wonder Woman.

This vote is for every angry woman who’s ever been asked “are you on the rag?“

It’s for every woman who has put her head down to survive.

And for every woman who was told college is wasted on girls.

It’s for every woman who died from back-alley abortions or because her life wasn’t considered as important as the one she was carrying.

This vote is for every young girl who was turned away from woodworking and put into Home Economics instead.

It’s for every girl who asked “Why?”

It’s for all the men enlightened enough to see that a world in which women are equal is better not only for women, but for men as well.

This vote is for every woman who scrubbed toilet stalls or stood on her feet ten hours a day or cleaned houses or worked a factory floor in order to provide for her children.

This vote is for every woman beaten, every woman assaulted, every woman touched against her will. It’s for the ones who were able to get away and for the ones who couldn’t.

This vote is for the women of Seneca Falls, NY, to the women who fought and died for my right to cast this ballot.

It’s for every woman who has endured a lifetime of small moments meant to belittle.

It’s for all the women who have come forward, especially the ones who have been doubted, shamed, or shunned.

This vote is for every woman who has had to write under the name of a man, who’s had her work overlooked, her contributions diminished, who has lost her rightful place in history books.

This vote is for every woman who’s had to work twice as hard to prove herself.

This vote is my mother who never once told me I was less than because of my sex. For my father who never shied away from telling me how proud he was of me.

This vote is for every girl who has heard ‘like a girl’. It’s for every little girl who knows, instinctively, it’s meant as an insult.

This vote is for every woman who came before, who chipped away a little at a time. For every woman who watched a dream fade away because others weren’t ready for her.

This vote is for every woman who has been called shrill, aggressive, bossy, bitch. This vote is for every woman who didn’t let those words stop her.

This vote is for every eye blackened, every bone broken, every woman killed.

This vote is for every woman who went first, who cut herself on whichever ceiling she broke through, who had to tend to her wounds alone because she was the only one.

This vote is for every little girl growing up in a country where she is still denied the right to be educated, where she is sold into marriage or trafficked into trade.

This vote is for my husband, who believes I can do anything I dare to dream. It’s for my sons, who will grow up never questioning the idea of a woman’s name on a ballot.

This vote is for every voice raised against inequality, whether it is shouting or whispering.

This vote’s for you, Hillary.