It’s Women’s History Month, and as much as I love a good celebration (obvs), I find myself annoyed by the performative ra-ra women platitudes that dominate social media and crowd our inboxes. A bit salty? Yes, and for good reason: women are under attack. From the overturning of Roe v Wade to the attack on trans rights to the dismantling of all things DEI, women’s rights are being systematically stripped. Our history is literally being rewritten by people who believe that this country was stronger when it was whiter, straighter, and run by men who didn’t have to contend with ‘woke feminist propaganda’ that demanded more of them. And these very same people are using the strategies and laws designed to uplift and protect us as a way to further their misogynistic agenda.
Let’s start close to home
In April, I’ll be making the two-day drive from Reno to Carbondale, CO, for Boot Tan Fest, the largest ski and snowboard festival for women and genderqueer folks. If you haven’t heard of it, the short version is this: we show up, slather our bodies in glitter, take over the mountain, ski a naked lap, laugh until it hurts, and go home feeling like ourselves again. It is, by every account, magic.
Every year, for six years, I’ve looked forward to this event. It’s one of the only spaces in snowsports where I’ve felt seen and accepted. Two days out of 365 is not a lot to ask for, but this past year, two men with time on their hands and fragile egos complained to the U.S. Forest Service about the exclusion of men at Boot Tan Fest.
The result? The festival’s founder, Jenny, has developed a new risk management plan that includes enlisting security to keep the base area safe (which is on private land, not Forest Service land). She spent a weekend scrubbing her own website, deleting the words “private,” “exclusive,” and “no men allowed.” She had to erase the language that made Boot Tan Fest what it is, because accurately describing a safe space for women and genderqueer folks was suddenly a liability.
This is not an isolated incident, it’s a pattern
In 2024, the Fearless Fund—an Atlanta-based venture capital firm founded by Black women to invest in businesses led by women of color—was forced to permanently shut down its grant program after a lawsuit brought by conservative activist Edward Blum. Imagine the scenario in which a white man is worried that he can’t get his because a woman will get it first. It’s certainly not based in fact—Black women receive less than 0.35% of venture capital funding, and women as a whole receive 2.3%.
And just last month, the EEOC, the federal agency meant to enforce workplace civil rights, filed a lawsuit against a regional Coca-Cola bottler, alleging sex discrimination because the company held a two-day women’s networking event at a casino resort in Connecticut, excluding male employees. The EEOC is now seeking monetary compensation for the men who were excluded, citing their “emotional pain, suffering, inconvenience, and mental anguish.” Two hundred and fifty women, in a room together, talking about navigating a male-dominated industry only to make Coca-Cola more money, and then these assholes go and prove them right.
Their emotional anguish at being left out of one networking event in an industry they already dominate. Mmmkay.
The same administration dismantling protections for women, trans people, and people of color is now invoking the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to protect men from women’s networking events. They are using the rights we fought so hard for and bled for, against us. Affinity spaces, women’s programs, targeted grants, and employee resource groups are all now in the crosshairs, framed as discrimination by the people who have never had to fight for a seat at the table because they built the table for themselves.
History is happening right now
During a month when we celebrate women’s history, it’s important to acknowledge that history is happening right now, and we are in it. The women who organized, who showed up, who held space, who got sued and kept going anyway are writing it.
Women’s History Month asks us to honor what came before. I’d argue it also asks us to look at what’s being dismantled in real time and decide what we’re going to do about it. We don’t get to be passive participants in our own story.
Show up for the women-only events. Support the women-founded funds. Buy the ticket. Fight for the inclusion and normalization of trans women. Don’t let them make us so afraid of litigation that we stop building the spaces we need.
They can file all the complaints and lawsuits they want. It’s proof that we’re gaining ground, and that’s where the hope in all of this lies. If they believed we were powerless, blips that could easily be overlooked, they wouldn’t have to resort to such aggressive actions. It’s only because we’ve fundamentally changed society so much that they believe there’s no option but to stop us. Good luck with that, boys.
Until next time…
Jen Gurecki, she/her, CEO of Coalition Snow
