With March being #WomenHistoryMonth I wanted to share 5 ways for women to support women. A woman alone has power but collectively we have impact. Let's make this an every month thing and not just once a year.
1. Celebrate Women's Accomplishments
It's important that we look for ways to always celebrate one another. When a woman has a major accomplishment, recognize her, acknowledge her, cheer for her because I promise this doesn't take away from any of your abilities. Allow her to have her moment to shine. We've had to fight long enough to be successful and ridiculed more than once for failures.
2. Encourage her to go for it
If a woman feels vulnerable enough to share a pain from her journey and she has an idea to embrace it or to help another woman out THEN encourage her to go for it!!! Women already face an uneven playing field because we're looked at as "strong", "independent", or whatever stereotype. We should be able to count on a good sis for an up lifter or words of encouragement. Boost her confidence, stroke her ego, it actually makes you a very supportive empowered woman.
3. Give a woman some valuable feedback
Women often receive less feedback and not so helpful feedback. So if you see something that she is doing really well, let her know to keep doing that thing. If you see something that may need improvement or small enhancements then tell her exactly what is is, don't sugarcoat it, keep it real and valuable.
4. Collaborate or Mentor other Women
Sadly, we tend to gravitate away from these two ideas when money isn't involved. This is our sad reality and we have to do better at finding ways to add value to one another. Women are less likely to have someone advocate or promote them. If we did more collaborating then chances are the two or the group would be "chosen" or promoted. If we mentored then women would have the opportunity to brush up their skill set. Neither of these take away from your value.
5. Establish a genuine relationship
Lastly, I think it's super important that we establish genuine relationships. May think networking is relationship building, but it's actually not. That's typically a one and done situation. Relationship building is going to take time and effort from both parties after the meetup or brief conversation is done. Obviously, you won't connect with every single woman on a genuine level but I'm sure there are one or two people that share the same interest. (Your vibe attracts your tribe) Form your sister circle, y'all check-in on one another, celebrate each other, plan girlfriend trips, etc. Everyone needs someone in their corner on the brightest day and the darkest days.
"You can tell who the strong women are, they are the one's you see building each other up instead of tearing each other down."