I am a woman. On Wednesday I came to work. I did not wear red.

I realize some women went “on strike” Wednesday for “A Day Without Women” to protest various gender inequalities and some were protesting President Donald Trump and I believe, some were just taking the day off.

I heard women were supposed to wear red and not spend any money. I made sure I did both. I’ve never really liked people telling me what to wear and what to do. Having lived on my own for more than 10 years (including college) I became somewhat independent.

But I never considered not coming to work on Wednesday. I came to work because my parents raised me with a strong work ethic and I believe it’s better to invoke change by doing something rather than not doing something.

Some argue protests work, and they have for some issues. But what did women accomplish Wednesday? They wanted women to wear red for women’s right but did every woman know what the red was representing? Did they wear red for the cause or because they were told to or just because they were a woman?

With so many causes and so many colors, does anyone really know what all the colors represent?

Organizers of “A Day Without Women” wanted women not to go shopping or spend money to show their economic impact. Well, I don’t think anyone disputes that women have a huge economic impact. Growing up my mother did all the grocery shopping and my father rarely went to the store. I do most of the grocery shopping for our household.

It’s women that go on “shopping trips” for fun weekends, not men. It’s women with the closet full of shoes and accessories for every outfit. It’s women, usually, with the most beauty products in the home. The economic impact of women and their shopping prowess is well known. Women didn’t need to walk off the job and quit shopping for a day to let people know that.

Consider the great women role models over the years— Wyoming’s first woman governor Nellie Tayloe Ross, NASA’s “Hidden Figures” Dorothy Vaughn and Mary Jackson, first woman astronaut Sally Ride, astronaut/teacher Christa McAuliffe, first woman Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O’Connor, first woman elected to Congress Jeannette Rankin (there are now 104 in Congress accounting for 19.4 percent), just to name a few. When I think of them, I think of them as women of action. Changing the world by doing, rather than not by doing. I can’t imagine them walking off the job.

Don’t get me wrong. As a woman I support striving for gender equality, especially wage equality. I have been a victim of that in a previous job. Yes it still happens; and yes it happens in Wyoming.

I’ve dealt with male chauvinism in nearly every job. I’ve heard the condescending tones and looks from men whether at work, or in just casual conversation depending on the topic of conversation.

I know there is still work to be done to change people’s attitudes toward and about women.

But, I’m not your total feminist. I like it when my husband holds the door open for me. I don’t feel slighted, I feel he’s being a gentleman. On the other hand, I know how to change a flat tire (thanks to my dad wanting us girls to have basic automobile knowledge).

I also realize that physically men and women are created differently, that doesn’t mean unequal. But, we are in fact different. If we weren’t different, then the distance from the tee to the hole on golf courses wouldn’t be different for men and women, women in tennis would play the best three of five just like the men and the women’s 3-point line would be the same distance as the men’s

Maybe for some, because they don’t have the avenue I have in writing in this space, taking Wednesday off was their way of letting their voice be heard.

For myself though, I’m still going to work hard, being the best I can be. I want people to notice me for my work ethic not because I went “on strike.” I want to be noticed for being a good writer, editor, photographer, period; not a good woman editor.

We’ll get there eventually, where people look at people for who they are and what they do and not look first at what race or gender they are before looking at what they do and who they are on the inside.

Just as the civil rights movement has come a long way, but still has a ways to go; so to the women’s rights movement has come a long way, with still more improvement needed.

Consider the fact that years ago women couldn’t own property, couldn’t vote, couldn’t work, teachers had to be unmarried. There were specific working roles for women and men and now those lines are crossed, men are nurses and teachers now and women are mechanics and pilots and serving in combat.

Wednesday was also International Women’s Day. Perhaps next year, instead of protesting and walking out, we celebrate womanhood and how far we have come. Perhaps in celebrating all that a woman can be, we become a better role model for our young ladies, showing them we can and have become whatever we wanted to be — teachers, soldiers, attorneys, bankers, astronauts, Congresswomen, governors, engineers, scientists, editors and so much more.

All that being said, I was reminded of a quote in the sitcom “Designing Women” where the cast was visiting with a 102-year-old woman as they awaited the birth of Charlene’s baby. The character, “Miss Minnie Bell Ward” said, supposedly quoting her “pappy,” “we ain’t what we should be, we ain’t what we’re gonna be, but at least we ain’t what we were.”