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.
You are amazing, Hilary! Thank you for helping change the world. We need more people like you! <3
Thank You ! very powerful! I wish I would have started my self evaluation long ago! What a revelation!!!
What an amazing article! Very eye opening too! Hilary, you are amazing, I feel like you just got a plank of 4×2 and knocked me out it makes sense. Thank you
Big applause for this article. Brought me to tears. God bless her. Beautiful woman inside and out.
You are amazingly bright, compassionate and insightful. I’ve read this piece a couple times and thank you. Wishing you good health and happiness.
Unconsciously i don’t feel loved so i’m codependent in my relationship. I have always done what the other’s told me to do and i have always believed the horrible things they said to me. But it’s my responsability to change and not to victimize myself. I’m trying to find myself and to feel good being alone and not to depend on others.
So good. That was a great read. My passion is empowering other women and this article is so helpful.
My parents told me daily that I am worthless, a burden, I ruined their lives just by being alive. I believed them for so long. I heard it so much that I thought it was all true. I let this idea control my life for too long. I know what they said is not true but I still made choices based on their ideas of me. Just now, I know that they were struggling with failure at work, relationship problems, etc and they were falsely blaming me. I tried so hard to make them happy by being quiet, staying locked up inside, too afraid to experience life because I was terrified to ruin someone’s life for just being alive.
I’m a gifted artist and aspiring designer. I thought I should go into engineering for me to find a good job for this and even though I got accepted to most of my picked university programs, something came out of me and was like “THATS ENOUGH, NO MORE LYING TO YOURSELF.” Now I’m happily pursuing a direct design program that will take me to the career that I’ve been dreaming about ever since I was young. All this happened Bcuz one weekend, something inside me had enough of the bs and burst forth. I’m glad this happened, I feel at peace now.
Fantastic post, thank you. I wish every girl knew there are better scenarios that being stuck in a bad place. ridding myself of abusive and insecure partners or leaving jobs that simply didnt feel right or challenge me enough has always been rewarding on the long run. i think the gut feeling tells you when you are lying to yourself and we will have to listen and most importantly think everything through and accept that mistakes are part of learning.