Empowered Women EMPOWER Women!

In mainstream feminism we talk about “empowering women” in a pretty generic way. We see the slogan “Empowered Women Empower Women!” on t-shirts, pins, buttons, posters at rallies, etc., but what does it really mean? And how do we actually DO it??

The United Nations Population Fund states that “the empowerment and autonomy of women and the improvement of their political, social, economic and health status is a highly important end in itself. In addition, it is essential for the achievement of sustainable development…Achieving change requires policy and program actions that will improve women's access to secure livelihoods and economic resources, alleviate their extreme responsibilities with regard to housework, remove legal impediments to their participation in public life, and raise social awareness through effective programs of education and mass communication.”

Before we get too far, because I feel like in order to have successful and informed dialogue, we need to be operating on the same definitions of key terms. Empowerment, in this article, will refer to: the process of becoming stronger and more confident, especially in controlling one's life and claiming one's rights. Autonomy refers to: self-government or self-direction; being autonomous is acting on motives, reasons, or values that are one's own; freedom from external control or influence; independence. I believe the UN hits its right on the nail here, though without drawing serious attention to it: Empowerment comes from autonomy. 

Though I don’t think there is any one definition of an ‘empowered woman’, I think that there are many characteristics of empowered women that I have observed, whether in myself or in others. Empowered women feel free and motivated to make decisions about themselves and their lives without conforming [or perhaps in spite of] the demands of society; empowered women are conscious of the societal and cultural constraints that are placed upon them and actively fight to break these barriers down, to make choices on their own volition, and adhere to their own moral code of conduct. I think being an ‘empowered woman’ in a processes, and perhaps fluid in nature; I think even the most ‘empowered woman’ can sometimes let her ‘empowerment’ be stripped from her, can experience their empowerment falter based on experiences or circumstances they face, or even lose sight of our own power.

As empowered women, I think we have a moral charge to help empower other women. We have unique experiences, not just physically, but mentally, emotionally, spiritually, from others; these unique experiences provide us specific, additional, and stronger insight and understanding into the lives of other women. In the histories of the world, the empowerment of women has almost solely been provided or nurtured from/by other women. Power has almost never been given to women freely, rather something they have had to fight for, sometimes (many, many times) to the death, with countless women sacrificing themselves for their cause. Historically speaking, power, including personal power, societal, political, and legal, has been taken back by women, not given freely by the patriarchal domain. [That has included men that have fought alongside our sisters in the cause, but make no mistake that women have the amount of power (which is still unequal power) that they have because THEY have FOUGHT for it, DEMANDED it, and NOT GIVEN UP until they have received it.]

I raise up my voice – not so I can shout, but so those without a voice can be heard… We cannot succeed when half of us are held back.
– Malala Yousafzai

I feel like we’ve talked about the first question pretty well; I think we understand what it means to be an empowered woman. Now let’s get to the goods. HOW do we empower women??

1. Education

The U.N. stated that “education is one of the most important means of empowering women with the knowledge, skills and self-confidence necessary to participate fully in the development process”. Girls and women need opportunities for education and skill building. As a woman in STEM, this is very important to me. Girls’ interests or capabilities many times go unnurtured in fields of science, technology, math, and engineering. Studies show that the biggest time for girls’ interests to be supported in these areas is middle school. After school programs, summer camps, and social-educational groups can be a huge advantage to girls and help them to keep and pursue their interests in STEM. Beyond STEM programs, girls and women need to be encouraged to seek education, and supported in their educational efforts (not just by scholarship and/or child care assistance, but also with opportunities).

2. Mentorship

Perhaps one of the greatest things we can do as women is to mentor other women. This is HUGE for helping to advance women in all areas of work and volunteering. As I’ve stated before, women hold very unique experiences, and it’s vital to the success of other women, that we mentor and teach each other. Mentorship has shown to be so statistically significant when it comes to women's success at work, that it boggles my mind that there isn’t more push or efforts to do so. Women need to stand together and help each other.

3. Being Vulnerable and Transparent

Women have an innate tendency to compare ourselves to each other. I believe this is something that has been socially bred into us, but despite what the causes are, we know that it is a behavior women engage in more than men. (Innumerous psychological and sociological studies have been devoted to understanding this very phenomena) Being transparent and willing to be vulnerable about our experiences is crucial to empowering other women. Our experiences are tremendously powerful. We can harness this power and use to inspire the women around us; that kind of inspiration and power will spread like wildfire.

4. Encouragement

We need to be reliable support systems to each other. Our relationships with other women can be monumental in helping to shape our own empowerment, our own confidence, and our own self-love. Be a woman who stands up for other women, who encourages them to be strong, resilient, and make their dreams come true. Positivity is perhaps the strongest weapon against the dark perils of the world. Make sure you’re encouraging those around you, and you will also build yourself in the process.

5. Listen

Maybe this is one of the most important ones, I don’t know…I keep thinking that as I write each one of these! WE NEED TO LISTEN TO OTHER WOMEN. Women have been silenced, talked over, and ignored for so long, that people (including women) just accept it as part of everyday life, as a part of culture. THIS. IS. NOT. OKAY. It is absolutely IMPERATIVE that we listen, truly LISTEN, to each other. Speaking up or talking about certain things takes loads of courage and bravery; when women do have that courage to tell you about their experiences, you should actively listen to them. And RESPECT them. We’ve just gone through yet another horrible example in politics about when we silence women or ignore their experiences. LISTEN. BELIEVE WOMEN. BELIEVE SURVIVORS.

6. Help to Break Barriers

Intersectional feminism focuses on how all of us have a myriad of experiences and backgrounds and aspects of ourselves that come together to create the whole person of who we are. Whether that’s our race or ethnicity, socioeconomic status, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, able-bodiedness, or our physical/mental/emotional health, we have many things that combined together to make us who we are. We first have to understand that all these intersect, and then we need to acknowledge our privilege, wherever it may be. Next, we need to think about these intersectionalities when listening or helping others, and ACTIVELY work to help the women around us break through these barriers.

7. Invest in Women

Time to put our money/resources/power where our mouth is. We need to INVEST in women, whether that’s financially (supporting women-owned/women-lead businesses, donating to scholarship funds for women, etc.), emotionally (supporting each other by being confidants, ears to listen, shoulders to cry on), with our time (mentorship, teaching, helping), with our contacts and resources, and especially with our own power (utilizing our power/privilege/platform to hand the mic over other women of different backgrounds to share their experiences and needs). We need to invest in each other!

8. SUPPORT

Much of what I’ve talked about above has been related to support. But it’s so important, I’m giving it its own section. When we support each other, we create powerful bonds of alliance, friendship, and respect. There are many ways we can show our support for other women, and many of them include all the numbers above, but also include things like showing up at marches, rallies, and town halls, participating in activism, wearing a certain color to support a certain cause, etc. We can make the effort to stand up for women, wherever we may be, in whatever ways we can. We can offer our talents, our means, and our resources to helping those women around us become confident, educated, successful women!