And so, I am completely at a loss in understanding this aspect of my gender: why are we so darn hard on each other? It’s like when we tell men, they can’t understand what it is to look over your shoulder in a dark parking lot; or we tell our straight people, they need to walk in our gay shoes for a day; or we tell our white allies, they can’t understand our daily struggles from a place of privilege. I am an outsider. I have racked my brain, heart and soul to understand why women (again, white women) would support a less qualified man who said out loud, “Grab them by the pussy,” and we all know in our hearts, has sexually assaulted and discriminated against and objectified women his entire life. And white women: we split the vote? This is where I discover, I have no answers.

What I do know is that Donald Trump was clever. He knew the notes to play (“Crooked Hillary”) to give women the license to turn on each other. He isn’t the first, and he won’t be the last! Turning women on each other is the surest way of holding us down, and maintaining the status quo of women being secondary class citizens by so many measures.

I fear for what comes next. These coming four years, will not be good years for women. Sexual harassers and assaulters are emboldened – hey, even Bill Cosby now wants another chance! Workplace discrimination will be rampant, and likely go largely unenforced. Women will be put down at the workplace, at home, and on our campuses. This is happening, already.