Women Empowerment at Work: Work to be Done for Equity, Enrichment, & Elevation to Generate Change for Future Generations, for the World

Equity in Access to Education, Redefining Representation in the Workforce for Women in the World, Carving out Confidence, Building Destinies & Enduring Empowerment, & Longevity in Profession through Balance and Better Resources. For Self-Actualization. For Transformation. For Elevation. For the Future. For Women. For the World

Growing Higher & Wider in Potential, Expansion, & Understanding through Unification. That is Individual and International Enrichment. That is Cultural Change. For Women in the Workforce – Across the World

As women have made tremendous progress in finding a worthy place in the workforce, there is still much work to be done and a steep hill to climb in the decades to come.

There is a deep-seated need for representation in all industries and at every level. There is an extreme lack of representation in terms of women claiming not only a job but a role of leadership. This is a pivotal piece of solving the puzzle of the mobility of women within the economy, in terms of inspiring rising leaders to aspire to levels of seniority and even pursuing professional paths that can follow in solid steps to take senior leadership roles. Women not only should have a seat at the table as they have found in recent decades, but they should feel engagingly invited to speak up and make their voices heard to invite and create space for more women in the future to claim a spot at the table.

Opportunity. Affinity. Ability. All Offered through Access & Availability.

With access being one of the biggest barriers to forming unity within the world, the opportunity to offer a platform to give aspirational women the ability to manifest their personal ability is pivotal. Not only is it notable, but it is deeply needed, something I have learned personally through gaining more insight with Women@Dior and UNESCO through the Women Leadership & Sustainability Education Program, Gender Equality is the 5th goal & essential need of the world listed by United Nations, an incredible entity that denotes and works diligently to serve the deepest needs of the global community through awareness and activism. How do you create a solution to the equation of gender equality? (Hint: It is a complex answer that will take continuous and ceaseless commitment with dedication and determination in persistence.)...:

Empowerment, Activism, & Access to

the factors that will actively change the sum & add up to make a difference.

Attainable access and the chance to not only find one's affinity but find a purpose within it and the access to manifest it, a woman can grow in herself and realize her potential while witnessing the change she can and is making in the world. That is empowering women.

By giving more women in a myriad of places not only the tools to sharpen and shape their minds and environment, but the confidence to continue building it, the world can be shaped and cultures can be changed. Both in diversifying the access to grow & including the fruitful ideas and impactful ways community and culture can be elevated and enriched through equity. The inclusion of not only giving a woman a platform to stand one, but a microphone to share her voice and vision with others who are open to hearing, comprehending, and further fueling the change she can see through standing in solidarity and extending empathy is the essence of what DEI is and the empowerment it can generate.

 However, one important attribute that is not necessarily a caveat, but an added infusion of empowerment, in my opinion, is this: meeting women where they are at. When we place expectations on peoples’ capabilities, potential, or even environment and how they will grow, it doesn’t allow for autonomy and the most magnanimous growth into their calling and how it can shape their life and their community in ways they can sense and see.

Saviors are not needed.

Allies, Advocates, and Supporters

are what will make lasting differences.

In launching any effort to help, we must meet others’ where they are at, and ask where they want to go. From there, in gaining more personal understanding for their story and their surroundings, we can more beneficially contribute to the capabilities they innately possess and in more contributive ways for their specific circumstance, and how they may dream to change it. As with everything else, first aiming to understand and developing a deeper understanding for others is essential to make them feel seen, heard, and acknowledged in understanding.

Meeting others where they are at

and not where we assume them to be

nor think they may go

is how help transforms into hope.

It is a two-fold gift, not only allowing the enrichment and refinement in personal ability but spreading one's unique strength to further fortify and diversify one woman's wisdom to the wider world that can grow from her knowledge and vision. Giving that vision a voice is transformational, on an individual and international scale. It instills confidence in oneself, in trusting an inner-knowing, while also allowing that confidence to be seen and reflected in the way a woman is received when she walks into a room. When we can carry ourselves with confidence and composure in a humble persistence of our competence, others can see and sense that. It allows others to perceive and finally give the reputation and respect as an active and generous authority in thought spaces. It builds a reputation of credibility founded on confidence within, and competence that has the power to further shape the world.

Claiming and Declaring Destiny Through Confidence & Competence, Rooted in Care & Compassion

When a woman can launch from a place of confidence, having been given that opportunity to invest in her ability and affinity, it not only enriches her knowledge but every person she simultaneously can reach with access and connection. With compassionate ears and comprehension of every woman's unique story & strengths developed through it, when others can hear and learn from it, it creates common ground and a more comprehensive understanding. 

Building a community based both on acknowledging the unique challenges of various cultures and the celebration of an empowered woman who has plotted a path through her unique path is where diversity of mind can truly begin. From a point of more completely acknowledging the circumstance, challenge, and change-potential of various cultures, we can form a more well-rounded approach to building bridges, filling gaps, and truly moving towards inclusion.

You can have diversity through representation - say in inviting a few voices from different backgrounds to the room - however, the difference and impact of truly including those diverse individuals is when change can happen. This is layered in the concept of the difference it makes in the way both her family and community regard her as a contributing member worthy of compensation, which in turn allows her to carry herself with more gusto and general confidence to not only contribute but have a right to along with more of a boost to amplify her views and voice.

Earning Ears and What Women Worthily Deserve in the Workforce

In speaking with and learning from admirable women who have blazed a trail and had extensive and essential experience in the professional world, "bridging the gap" not only in representative equity but wage and standard compensation is still a barrier though it is more commonly spoken of. One of the proven leading causes that are unspoken of, regarding this front is the fact that many women are, in fact, forced to more routinely and continuously switch jobs, leaving current roles and transition to similar ones in new places due to an array of unethical issues such as the most prevalent ones which are workplace harassment and unfair treatment and representation. When women are constantly in transition, it creates an innate barricade from being able to gain progress and promotion, both in leadership, impact, empowerment, and pay. It has been sociologically studied and scientifically proven that while the conversation of money is often avoided, it is evident that when a woman is able to earn money on her merit, she can claim power.

This is layered in the richness of concept in the difference it makes in the way both her family and community regard her as a contributing member worthy of compensation, which in turn allows her to carry herself with more gusto and general confidence to not only contribute but have a right to along with more of a boost to amplify her views and voice.

Leading from this idea is the conceptualized combative question, “What about the quality company cultures?” On the whole, there has been upward momentum of the acknowledgment and active initiatives to cultivate better company culture. While this is immensely aiding the work to be done in female representation for the future, the overarching international economic climate of my generation having the lowest buying power leaves a void to be filled in innovative and more insightful ways than ever before.

As the world has reassessed every industry, intention, and even basic interaction, one major truth has been unearthed:

People crave purpose

& value it at a penultimate level.

There has been a realization that being in service and seeing the tangible and good impact one’s effort and energy can have is now not only acknowledged but a leading motivation and decision factor. Considering this, in place of payment and purchase power, women will inevitably need the ability to find a purpose in the work they do. On the micro-level, this would include the consideration of company culture, espoused and enacted values of organizations, and the aforementioned representation and compensation factors to be focused on. Bringing it to a macro level, as the workplace of the future is evolving in both office spaces and the people who collaborate to compose them in more integrated and inclusive ways, women will inevitably be all the more pressed to pursue and place precedence on finding roles that primarily suit their personal life balance.

As working mothers emerge yet are on the constant verge of finding support systems and ways to make it work in a literal sense, there must be more priority placed on creating roles and workplace environments that are conducive and contribute to cultivating that ever allusive “work-life balance” and overarching harmony. As unemployment rates have trended even higher for female professionals having to fill many buckets of life between providing and also caring for family, there must be a re-alignment of how to not only help women find a more conducive work-life balance, but find the overarching primary option of being able to continue working without making the choice between professional or personal obligation to community and family.

 If money is less of a decisive factor and purchasing power takes a demand and deeper meaning in its necessity now more than ever, women will be faced with the non-negotiable search of truly tapping into passions and purpose instead of high pay grades. It is evident that more value in contribution and seeing the genuine impact and fulfillment in interactions and effort more than ever before is a priority of generating equity for work and being able to make it more satisfactory and ultimately sustainable. There must be channels put in place to plug into that new outlet.

In increasing employability over a lifetime, filling wage gaps and carving out more representative female leadership examples and pipelines, paving a path for the longevity of both tenure and career on the whole, and compensating purchase power for genuine empowerment found in purposeful work, I believe the current critical issue women of in the workplace can begin to evolve. The heavy task of my generation to begin the ideation of ways to lift these loads is heavy. However, I believe that with policies, action, and advocacy to continuously break barriers and decrease the burden, we can make progress.

In fact, with true gusto and grit,

I believe that we can become stronger, building upon the foundation

beneath our feet, and fortify a space

of increased equity for ourselves

and to further promote progress

for future generations.

* Photos Featured Directly from an Internet Search of "Women Empowerment & Female Leaders in ________", filling in the 'blank' with the diverse geographic locations of the world, showcasing the comparison and contrast of the first 4 photos shown in the search results.

__________________________________________________________________________

Sources of Further Inspiration, Information, and Ways to Support:

• UNESCO
• The United Nations Population & Sustainable Development Goals
• Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
• Together Rising Foundation
• Brené Brown: Unlocking Us & Dare to Lead Podcasts
• Forbes: Women Leadership > Living The Confidence Code: How Girls Can Expand Their Confidence & Self Worth Today
• McKinsey & Company: When Women Lead, Workplaces Should Listen