With the size and magnitude of the Women’s March around the country this past weekend, the discussion around feminism has once again become a loud national conversation. The troubling part of the conversation is not that it’s happening or that protests are occurring, but the number of people who are saying they don’t support feminism.

Even more troubling is that it seems a lot of the conversation has revolved around personal experiences or beliefs without taking into account facts behind the movement. Looking at the facts, how could you not be a feminist?

Personal experiences or beliefs aside, feminism is defined in Merriam-Webster as “the theory of the political, economic and social equality of the sexes.” The feminist movement is about being treated fairly regardless of your sex. That means standing for fair treatment of both women and men, specifically when it comes to defeating systematic sexism and advocating that all human beings be treated with dignity.

That said, again we’ll ask: how could you not support feminism?

Believing that systematic sexism does not exist or that “choices” are why women or men end up being treated a certain way, is comparable to believing the earth is flat. The facts just don’t support it. Beyond that, ignoring systematic sexism is outright harmful to making society a better place for all of us.

Here are examples of systematic sexism:

• There is still a gender pay gap where women are not paid the same amount for doing the same work that men do.
• About 65 percent of women say they have faced street harassment, according to a survey.
• Fewer employers offer paid parental leave for men than for women, and also that fewer men report receiving paid parental leave than women, according to a 2012 Department of Labor study, despite the fact that studies have shown a variety of benefits for offering paternity leave.
• While sexual assault affects a variety of people, women are more commonly the victims. One in five women have been sexually assaulted while in college, according to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center. Beyond this, we live in a country that has allowed the man in its highest office to get away with dismissing discussion of groping a woman as “locker room talk.”
  
• Stigmas still exist about men needing to be tough and muscular while women need to be sweet and petite, which has profound affects on self worth.

Those are just a few examples and that’s just in the United States. Globally, we see even higher rates of systematic sexism.

These are all problems that we still need to address. These are all problems that the feminist movement is trying to address.

Now of course, there may be a feminist or two with certain beliefs that you might not agree with just as there are certain things people within a political party might not see eye to eye on. Despite what you may or may not have personally experienced, facts show that systematic sexism still exists. Regardless of your personal experiences, the feminist movement is something that benefits each and every one of us by working toward a society that gives each person a fair chance despite what sex we are.