It’s always difficult writing about women’s issues being a male. As much as we try to empathize with the opposite gender, you can never truly know what it means to be a woman unless you are one. This past Friday was International Women’s Day and although I expected the day to be all about love, but I saw a lot of hate as well.

It’s crazy to think that in 2019 you still have to tell people women are equal to men. I didn’t go out to an International Women’s Day march to commemorate the occasion, but I did go to a movie, “Captain Marvel,” and that’s where the hate was witnessed. The movie introduces Marvel movie fans to a new female superhero. She’s the lead, it’s her own movie and she’s powerful. Not to spoil the movie, but moving forward in the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies this new superhero will be important. Anyways, while buying my ticket, a group of Marvel fans began discussing the movie, but instead of the usual comic book banter that I’ve become accustomed to I heard sexist comments like, “Why is she so strong if she’s a woman?” and “She doesn’t even look sexy in her costume.”

Comic book heroes or not, being male does not make any woman inferior. In today’s society, this belief of male superiority has led to things like women earning less money than their male counterparts working the same job. It’s also put a glass ceiling of sorts in almost every industry women are present in. According to Forbes, there was just 24 female CEOs among the list of Fortune 500 companies. And while some might say that we have more women CEOs today then say 10 years ago, the numbers don’t always go up. There was a 25 percent drop in women CEOs just from 2017 to 2018.

You can’t bring about change from one day to another, but you can plant the seed for it. Captain Marvel is here to stay and will continue to be the face of the MCU for years to come. To those bringing women down, you can’t stop change. You just have to adapt to it. Women must and will continue to rightfully claim their place in today’s world. If education is the key to success, then women are on the right path and have been for a while. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, women have outnumbered men in college for the last 40 years now. If that doesn’t convince you women are the future, then maybe Captain Marvel will when she beats Thanos in the next Avengers movie.