While four Gaston County women who took part in Saturday’s Women United March in Charlotte all agree they’ve got it better than their grandmothers when it comes to women’s rights, they’re also united in saying that more work needs to be done.

“There’s a lot of opportunities for us now and we have to make sure that we take advantage of those opportunities,” said Melissa Wagner, a Dallas resident who works as a licensed clinical addictions specialist. “I have two 13-year-old girls in my home and I just feel that it’s really important that we fight for them just like our grandmothers fought for us.”

That message hit home for the 43-year-old Wagner last year when she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

“I didn’t know if I was going to be alive this year or not, so it’s really important for me to especially make sure that these opportunities are still here for my daughters and my granddaughters,” said Wagner, who says her health is improving as she continues to undergo treatment.

For Josie Polhemus, a 56-year-old pharmacist who lives in Bessemer City, Saturday’s march was “about going forward, about progress, about change.”

“Being a woman means taking absolutely nothing for granted. No rights, no privileges,” she said. “Take nothing for granted and never lose sight of what you think is important.”

Diana Marenfeld, a 63-year-old former communications specialist who moved to Gastonia several years ago, said, “I have a lot more options than my grandmother had.”

Marenfeld ran for a seat on the all-male Gaston County commission in 2018. She received 37 percent of the vote, losing to longtime Republican Commissioner Tom Keigher. Marenfeld previously served as a local school board member in New York state and believes it’s important to remain active and that voters are given options.

“I’ve always felt that if you don’t participate, you’re missing out on other opportunities,” Marenfeld said. “Women have always been pushed to the side. There’s still that disparity and we’re still going to keep working to balance it out.”

Polhemus is a lifelong resident of Gaston County and she points to her grandmother, Pearl Spivey, as being one of the first progressive women in Gaston County to say that women deserved the same rights as men.

“She was very vocal about it, particularly about women voting, running for office,” Polhemus said of her grandmother, who she said went to work in the mills during World War II as a “Rosie the Riveter.”

“She was way ahead of her time and she inspired me,” said Polhemus, who had attended the two previous marches in Charlotte, which she said were uplifting and powering.

“The thing that I loved most about them were all the families that were marching and all the men that were marching and that was very encouraging,” she said, adding that one of her favorite signs at the march read “Quality men don’t fear women’s equality.”

Saturday’s march was the first for Gastonia resident Courtney Phillips, a 32-year-old stay-at-home mom who was able to attend the march thanks to her husband’s willingness to stay at home with their 4-year-old daughter.

While the 2016 election of Donald Trump may have spurred the Women’s March movement, Phillips believes the movement is also “a demand for acknowledgment that we are here and we are doing the work.”

Phillips said, “A lot of people point to the Women’s March as it’s just about Trump, but it’s not just about Trump. That was the final straw that we all just said, ‘Ok, now we need to make it known that we are here.’”

Females now make up the majority of voters in the United States, a statistic mirrored in Gaston County. As of Jan. 8, approximately 52 percent (72,417) of Gaston County’s 138,981 registered voters are registered as women.

Yet, that majority is not represented on the boards of many city councils, the Gaston County Board of Commissioners, and with state and national lawmakers.

“When you look at our local officials, they’re not representative of who we are,” Phillips said. “We’ve made really good strides, in Gastonia especially, with our elected leaders looking more like our population, but we have a lot of opportunity still to go.”

The mid-term elections of 2018 saw more women and people of color being elected to offices nationally, while Gastonia saw its first African-American woman, Donyel Barber, elected to a seat on the City Council.

Phillips believes the previous marches played a role by infusing local organizations - such as the Gaston County Democrats and Gaston County Democratic Women – with energy. All four women are members of both clubs.

“We’re excited, we’re engaged,” Phillips said. “It’s not just about marching. It’s about what do you do next.”

Polhemus agreed, saying it’s important that women continue to have opportunities and options.

“They can be anything they want to be,” she said. “If they want to be a stay-at-home mom, that’s great. If they want to go out and be president of the United States, that’s great. Whatever they want to be, there should be 1,000 percent people behind them, supporting them, building and lifting them up.”

Phillips said when looking back at civil rights progress through the years, both locally and nationally, the ones doing the organizing and grassroots groundwork is women.

“Any of the rights that any of us take for granted now have all been won through marching, through protests. Nobody gave women the right to vote. We had to fight for it,” Phillips said. “We’re not going back.”

You can reach Michael Banks at 704-869-1842, email mbanks@gastongazette.com and follow on Twitter @MichaelBanksNC.