Women’s empowerment has always been a concept I advocate for. Half of my intention behind joining a sorority was solely based on the admiration I felt toward the idea of a group of women working together towards building strong relationships and bettering themselves.
Throughout my life, from an elementary age to my college years, I’ve realized that not all women share the same ideal. My mother always said, “You’ll come across mean girls your entire life. It doesn’t matter if you’re 7 or 27, you’ll constantly be trying to deal with women who want to bring you down, but you cannot allow them to do so.”
I’ve personally never understood the point of degrading, competing or shaming other women for own personal gain or simply to make oneself feel liberated. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m no saint. I’m human and I have faults. And sure, there have been moments when I’ve looked at another woman and have become jealous or spiteful in one way or another.
However, I do recognize a difference between pure human tendencies of jealousy and an individual actively attacking other people, and in this case, women, for pure sport and some sort of perverse satisfaction.
As women, I feel that we must work as one to support one another and accentuate each other’s strengths. We relate on varying levels and deal with a variety of similar issues that as a unit, we can work towards improving and even diminishing.
The instinct to immediately criticize another female also should be a strong indication that an individual may be struggling with some personal self-confidence issues. Every woman deserves to feel confident and worthy of gaining success, prosperity, and happiness. Ridiculing others will not bring these aspects to one’s life, and I believe that this is an ideal that many people, including myself at times, need to work towards bettering.
Half the time, I think we’re just focused on our own self-gain and forget the beauty of helping one another to become successful as well. There is a certain greatness to lending a helping hand and learning from one another’s mistakes.
As I’ve grown older, I have recognized the benefits of women’s empowerment and the importance of asking for help when it’s warranted and assisting others in times of need. I’ve also realized the benefits of learning from other women’s successes. The greatest asset a successful woman can offer to another woman, are the tools for them to work towards gaining success as well.
We’re living in an age where feminism has taken our culture by storm. With celebrity advocates such as Jennifer Lawerence, Zooey Deschanel, Emma Watson, Amy Poehler, Beyoncé and many others, the idea of feminism with which women’s empowerment goes hand-in-hand, should be embraced rather than denounced.
And when I truly think about it, what do we have to lose from this empowerment? It doesn’t appear to be much, if anything, at all.
What do we have to lose from continuing this pattern of criticizing and demeaning one another? A whole lot more than we probably realize.
Be the difference and help make a difference by celebrating each other's successes and assets. You're only truly hurting yourself when choosing to view an individual with such negative connotations.
