I am voting for Hillary Clinton because she is a woman.

I am voting for Clinton because I am a woman and representation matters.

I also support the majority of her platform and have educated myself on her campaign but I disagree with people who say we should leave gender out of the conversation.

In the media today, representation can be as simple as bylines on a newspaper. According to the Women’s Media Center, men outnumbered women in front page bylines by 3 to 1 and by four on major news websites.

The clearest example of how important gender representation is can be seen through mainstream media — specifically athletics.

Women were the real champions at the Rio Olympics this year. From Simone Biles and Katie Ledecky making history to the fact that the United States women brought home the most medals for our country, girls everywhere had new role models.

On social media, people all over the world were posting photos of their daughters staring at the athletes admirably or attempting to do the same moves that the gymnasts or soccer players were doing.

When it comes to politics, fighting for representation and being active in voicing the need for it is a much harder task but our democratic duty nonetheless.

Because the seats of congress, school boards and positions of power aren’t mainstream and aren’t tossed into our faces through trending topics and television, it can be easy to brush it under the rug or not notice the issues at all.

Currently only 19.4 percent of United States Congress seats are held by women and since the first presidential election only 34 women have been party nominees.

There are only 18 female world leaders on Earth and of those, only 11 are elected to be so.

How is it that the United States hasn’t been included in that number? This nation is supposed to be the frontrunner for progress and the inspiration to all other nations.

Obviously qualification matters, but in a country that is 51 percent women, it’s unrealistic to assume that there aren’t women who could hold these jobs just as and even more successfully than their male counterparts.

As of 2015, women accounted for the majority of college attendees. Though the number for women pursuing engineering and computer science degrees have increased in recent years, the number is still low.

These numbers are low because women have never been able to see other women thrive in their field of interest.

How is a person expected to believe in themselves if no one has ever been encouraged and accomplished it before.

When Hillary Clinton, a women with nearly 40 years of political and activist experience accepted the official presidential nomination, I cried. I was so overwhelmed with inspiration and hope that injustice can someday cease if we just fight to give every person a chance.

I grew up really lucky to be surrounded by strong, independent and resilient women to look up to. I also buried myself in books and media with motivated and wonderful women like Gloria Steinem, Hermoine Granger and Rory Gilmore.

Dismantling a world where our actions are defended by “that’s how it always has been done” is something our generation has great potential to do.

Vote in November and all elections with the hope that we can make America better and on a constant track of progress.

That’s what you do when you truly love something.

Whitney Urmann can be reached at [email protected] or @WhitneyUrmann on Twitter.