Let’s be real: we are a far cry from the days when women had to fight just for the right to cast a ballot. In fact, it’s safe to say World War II would have ended very differently—and the economy would have completely tanked—if not for the thousands of bad-ass ‘Rosie the Riveters’ who rolled up their sleeves and flooded the factory floors.
Women have fought hard for every inch of ground gained, but make no mistake: we aren’t at the finish line yet. Dismantling the social, cultural, and political hurdles that hold women back isn’t for the faint of heart, and it certainly isn’t a solo mission. True change happens when women across the globe lock arms and present a united front about our worth, our abilities, and our massive potential.
Want to be part of the shift? Here are five highly effective—and surprisingly simple—ways you can empower the women around you and push the needle forward:
1. Fuel Her Mind (Support Education)
In the States, the gender gap in education is actually flipping—women are now out-enrolling men in college and pushing through to graduation at higher rates. But step outside our borders, and the reality looks drastically different.
In many countries, school-age girls are the designated water-carriers for their families, burning daylight walking miles just to secure something to drink. Improving access to clean water doesn’t just save lives; it literally gives girls their time back so they can sit in a classroom. (You can help make this happen by supporting organizations like Charity: Water).
Then there’s “period poverty.” Astonishingly, this isn’t just an issue in developing nations. Nearly 1 in 5 American girls have missed school simply because they couldn’t afford period products, and 137,000 girls in the UK face the exact same hurdle every year. In parts of India, a heartbreaking 4 out of 5 girls drop out entirely once they hit puberty. You can change this by petitioning your local government to provide free sanitary products in schools—take a look at the Red Box Program to see how it’s done right.
When a girl finishes secondary school, she is less likely to experience child marriage, face domestic abuse, and suffer from long-term health complications. As a result, educated women and girls are more likely to have fewer, healthier children, who are then, in turn, more likely to get an education and pull themselves out of poverty.
2. Stand with Women in Crisis
Human trafficking isn’t just a plotline in an action movie; rates have drastically increased over the last few years. Millions of girls worldwide are still subjected to forced marriages, enslavement, and exploitation.
The good news? There is an army of agencies fighting back. They provide rescue, counseling, medical care, and the financial backing these survivors need to rebuild their lives from scratch. Donating your time or money to a vetted charity in this space is one of the most direct ways to fight for a woman’s basic freedom.
3. Look in Your Own Backyard
You don’t need a passport to find women who need a hand up. Poverty rates are climbing in many states, and underfunded schools are capping the potential of brilliant girls who just need a fair shot. Meanwhile, domestic violence remains a quiet, pervasive epidemic.
Want to take action today? Look up the women’s shelters in your city and ask what they need. Pro tip: advocate for them to start accepting pets. The fear of leaving a beloved dog or cat behind with an abusive partner is one of the primary reasons women delay making their escape.
You can also step up as a mentor. Organizations like Big Brothers Big Sisters are always looking for people willing to share their time, listen, and help a disadvantaged girl realize what she’s capable of.
4. Vote With Your Wallet
Amazon will survive without your twenty bucks today. But the bakery down the street? Or that row of local boutiques? They rely on you. Many of the small businesses anchoring your community are run by local women and their families, and they are constantly battling to stay afloat against retail giants.
Take that same energy global by shopping from female artisans on Etsy. If you want to go a step further, fund a woman’s dream directly. Platforms like Zidisha allow you to provide microloans to female entrepreneurs in developing countries, letting you communicate with them directly as they build their businesses.
5. Speak Up — Unapologetically!
Use your voice for the women who are routinely silenced. Despite all our modern medical marvels, complications from pregnancy and childbirth are still claiming the lives of hundreds of thousands of mothers and newborns globally. Preventable issues like malaria and pneumonia are still devastating communities. You have the power to make noise about it.
Get involved with aid organizations, or better yet, go straight to the top. Flood your congressional representatives’ inboxes and voicemails. Demand that global women’s health remains a priority, and rally your friends to do the same. (Global Citizen is a fantastic resource if you need a place to start).
And Lastly…
Sometimes, the most empowering thing you can do for a woman is simply to see her.
Tell her you notice how hard she’s working. Write a quick thank-you note to your child’s teacher. Grab an extra iced coffee for that co-worker who looks like she’s carrying the weight of the world. If you’re a leader at your company, actively champion and promote the women on your team. You have the daily opportunity to make sure the women in your orbit feel fiercely valued, deeply respected, and completely unstoppable.
Make up can be empowering if used right… But the girls who work at Sephora make minimum wage, and the models who wear the make up are usually partially clothed sometimes entirely nude in adverts. I think too faced cosmetics especially uses like childish advertising with a picture of a dog, a cat, or a “pbj” and then will advertise it as “pbj” make up pallet – make up whom they are selling to full grown women. Also the fact that these products we wear on our face are being tested on animals. There’s just so many issues i have with the make up / cosmetics industry, and it makes my head hurt.
I agree. But the only thing I will say as a woman in the army is I get treated differently. All I ask for is the same respect as men get. That’s all I ask! I don’t want special treatment I don’t want things to be easier I just want respect that I give to be given back to me.
Wholeheartedly agree. What we can do is help each other recognize the power we already possess, the power that is deep within and perhaps covered by layers of self-doubt, just waiting to burst forth.
Thank you for the thoughtful article — 100% agree with dropping the term “empowerment” and that as a group, we will accomplish a lot — perhaps accelerate the timeline to close gender pay gaps we currently see across industries in the US. What I sometimes struggle with is how to continue to be authentic in the face of social pressure (that is, not fall into stereotypes such as, “remaining pleasant” — F-that). Men get away with a lot of toxic behavior in the workplace; it gets discouraging when they go unchecked and even PROMOTED!
When norms, traditions or policies are crippling the empowerment of womn especially; it makes it extra difficult for women to empower themselve and sort of #breaktheglass.
Outsiders cannot empower women: only women can empower themselves to make choices or speak out on their own behalf. However, institutions, including international cooperation agencies, can support processes that increase women’s self-confidence, develop their self-reliance, and help them set their own agendas. Empowerment is about people – both women and men – taking control of their lives: setting their own agendas, gaining skills, building self-confidence, solving problems, and developing self-reliance….
Hello Hilary! Very interesting topic. In my opinion, empowering women in societies where there are dominant masculinities and cultural norms dictating a lack of value for women, starts with shifting those societal gender norms to gender equitable practices. Community leaders, usually men, have to be engaged and educated on advantages of empowering women otherwise all development efforts to empower women through skills building and project incentives will be ineffective.
I went to a workshop of empower women and to present my project, and I was called feminazi by one of the kids of the secondary school. In general, they were resistant to the topic. They asked why there is not United Nations Men or Empower Men or International Day of Men…
I believe there is no job for a particular gender. Women all over the world are begining to realise this and this is thanks to using our voices and our skills to empower ourselves. Now you can find women in different job areas and skills while back in the days a womaqn would not be allowed to be a mechanic or a taxi driver, an engineer or an astronaut, an accountant or a banker. We need to empower more women and encourage more women so that we can help close the gender gap SDGs of UN.
I believe in empowering women economically and socially , Women should also participate in the econnomy and dicision making