Empowering Other Women Starts with Empowering Those Around You

​According to the New Oxford American Dictionary empowerment is defined as, “the process of becoming stronger and more confident, especially in controlling one’s life and claiming one’s rights.”

In more recent years’ due to the MeToo movement and Time’s Up campaign; female empowerment has been all over the news. All of us at one point or another have seen an inspiring quote on our timelines or a post by a celebrity emphasizing the importance of women supporting women. While it is great to see an uptick in women supporting women, it is not discussed enough how we as women should go about empowering others in a practical way.  

 Photo by Eloise Ambursley on Unsplash 

​Self-Love

Before anyone can focus on empowering others’ they have to first love and empower themselves. There’s the popular saying, you can’t pour from an empty cup. While a lot of people use this quote in the context of self-care it is equally as important in the context of self-love. If you do not love yourself or think of yourself as someone who is knowledgeable and has unique skills and gifts, if your cup is empty; then you cannot fill anyone else up. Considering empowerment is all about becoming stronger and more confident we as individuals have to make sure we’re feeling confident and strong before trying to help empower someone else.

Photo by Eye for Ebony on Unsplash

Empower Those Close to You

Another aspect of female empowerment that should be touched on more is empowering those in your inner circle. With social media being as big as it is it may feel like we have the ability to reach people we don’t know and empower those individuals. While this is a possibility, we should focus on empowering those close to us before empowering those in outside communities. It could be as little as encouraging your mother or sister on a new business venture or as big as leading a Girl Up Club at your school and teaching your peers about female empowerment. Regardless of how you go about it make sure you are empowering those in your community before reaching out on a global scale. 

​As we continue to go into this resurgence of female empowerment make sure your cup is full, you're empowering those in your community and then go out and make change on a global scale. 

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Written By Carol Wright