What Happens When The Laws Women Fought For Stop Protecting Them?

Abigail pleaded with her husband to “remember the ladies” and be “more generous and favorable” to them than their ancestors. She even went as far as to say that the ladies would create a rebellion against more tyrannical governments that didn’t honor their place in society.

This year, as our nation celebrates 250 years of independence from England, we celebrate those who had the courage to declare freedom from tyranny. But America’s story of liberty was not finished in 1776. In fact, many of the Founding Fathers chose to view this nation as an “experiment.” They knew that true freedom would have to be fought for long after the bayonets were relinquished. 

For centuries, American women have fought to be recognized as equal participants in this republic, not as an afterthought, but as citizens. That fight shaped the ballot box, the workplace, and the classroom. And today, it shapes the court where I once competed. 

As a high school girl, I was brutally injured by a male competing on the girls’ volleyball team. You may have read about my story in the news or have seen the advocacy work that I have tirelessly committed myself to ever since that day. But what happened to me is not just about one game or one injury. It is about whether the hard-fought protections women secured over centuries will be honored, or hollowed out. 

As a high school girl, I was brutally injured by a male competing on the girls’ volleyball team.

In most scenarios, women between the years of 1700-1900 were not universally accepted as “equals” to men, at least politically, around the world. The United States experimented on the state level with women’s suffrage in places like New Jersey and New York. In New Jersey, women were allowed to vote from 1776-1807 under property-based rules, but then the right was taken away. Similarly in New York, an act passed called “New York’s 1848 Married Women’s Property Act” that allowed married women to finally hold property in their own name. During the late 19th century, New Zealand and South Australia were two of the first countries to grant women the right to vote, while countries like Britain and the United States did not gain this right until after World War I. 

The modern women’s suffrage movement as we know it became mainstream during the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848, when Quaker Elizabeth Cady Stanton organized the first-of-its-kind women’s convention in New York. During this time period, she and other brave American women fought for the ideals of equality for not only women, but for the abolition of slavery as well. 

In 1920, with the ratification of the 19th Amendment, this paved the way for women to legally have the right to vote “on account of sex.” While there was still work to be done allowing non-white women to vote in America, this was a foundational expansion of political equality after decades of organizing, petitioning, and protesting. 

Building on this win, over 40 years later, women finally got equal protection under federal law. In 1964, lawmakers passed Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, making it illegal for employers to discriminate “on the basis of sex.” That meant women could no longer be denied jobs, promotions, or pay simply for being female. It was a turning point; not because it gave women special treatment, but because it affirmed that we deserved equal opportunity in the workplace. Title VII was foundational to the next pivotal act in Congress: Title IX. 

Title VII established that women could not be pushed out of the workforce simply for being women. But equality doesn’t just start at your first job. It begins long before that: classrooms, college admissions offices, athletic fields, and other school facilities. That’s why, in 1972, Congress passed Title IX of the Education Amendments. Title IX extended the same principle of equal opportunity into education and athletics, making it illegal for federally funded schools to discriminate on the basis of sex. 

Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s legal work in the early 1970s helped lay the constitutional groundwork that made sex-equality protections more enforceable. Her first Supreme Court victory, Reed v. Reed (1971), marked the very first time the Court struck down a law because it discriminated based on sex. Through a careful litigation strategy, Ginsburg helped persuade courts that sex discrimination was incompatible with equal protection principles. This ultimately strengthened the legal environment in which Title IX would operate and later be defended. 

When Title IX became law, it opened doors for young women to participate in athletics like never before. Before its passage, only about 300,000 girls were engaged in high-school athletics. Now, the number exceeds 3 million girls. This issue expands beyond high schools though—affecting colleges, the Olympics, professional sports and more. Title IX allowed females to have a space to challenge themselves, learn about teamwork and sisterhood, and learn life-long lessons that carry far into adulthood.

Title IX allowed females to have a space to challenge themselves, learn about teamwork and sisterhood, and learn life-long lessons that carry far into adulthood.

Sports shaped me into the woman I am. It made me feel confident, be quick on my feet, and learn new disciplines. Now, in the year 2026, all of this is in jeopardy for millions of girls. 

Today, I am fighting for the 3-million-plus girls who find purpose and joy in their sports. I am fighting for the women who wake up at the crack of dawn to train and who dream of being on the podium one day. I am fighting for the girls who have lost opportunities, medals, and scholarships. And I will not stop until we finally put an end to this dangerous ideology. 

Women did not fight for the right to vote so that our voices could be dismissed. We did not fight for property rights so that our autonomy could be redefined. We did not pass Title VII and Title IX so that the word “sex” could be untethered from biological reality. They were guardrails—built through persistence, sacrifice, and courage—to ensure women had equal opportunity under the law. 

The law recognized something that is biologically wired into every human being: males and females compete on different levels. Separate female athletic categories were not created to diminish women, but to ensure that women could fairly compete and excel at the sports they love. 

For 250 years, American women have stepped up when the country tested them. We organized when we were excluded. We led when we were sidelined. We demanded fairness when it was unpopular to do so. And now, once again, we find ourselves defending the very protections earlier generations fought to secure. 

Do not let our blood, sweat, and persistence die in vain to an ideology that has no basis in reality.

This year, two landmark Supreme Court cases—West Virginia v. B.P.J. and Little vs Hecox—represent a defining moment for the future of women’s sports. The heart of these cases is simple: biological men should not be able to erase what biological women fought for over generations, long before we created the absurd idea that you could switch your sex. 

In 1776, Abigail Adams asked her husband to remember the ladies. In 2026, my plea to our government is the same. Do not let our blood, sweat, and persistence die in vain to an ideology that has no basis in reality. Remember the ladies, because the promise of equality cannot survive if it forgets us. 

Payton McNabb is a sports ambassador for Independent Women and former three-sport high school athlete who turned tragedy into triumph after a traumatic brain injury ended her athletic future.