How We Can Support Each Other Better

• Practice Generosity of Spirit -- Share opportunities, resources, networking, referrals, or words of encouragement freely and openly. Don’t gatekeep or isolate yourself in the face of another woman’s good news. Other women’s success doesn’t diminish your own—it’s not pie. There’s plenty to go around. In fact, it ultimately expands what’s possible and spreads out to other female-based community interactions. Women are change-makers. Supporting fellow women strengthens the overall capacity of women in leadership, policy-making, and activism. Volunteer time and resources to women-centered organizations. Raise awareness on issues that uniquely affect women and advocate for change.

• Celebrate Each Other, Don’t Compare -- When we feel envy, we have the option to turn that negative, toxic response into positive medicine. We can intentionally shift that base emotion into overt admiration and curiosity. Ask: What can I learn from her success? Instead of comparing out and internalizing inferiority or inadequacy, let’s choose celebration, to cheer each other on. Do you know a woman who’s starting a small business, a side project or doing good work you believe in? Show support by showing up for those women. Donate financial or resource support. Invest in women-led endeavors, businesses, nonprofits, and initiatives. They will flourish.

• Create Safe Circles for All Women -- Build safe spaces for women by creating women’s circles—whether in friend groups, workplaces, or community social events—where honesty, empathy, and non-judgment are modeled and thrive. Ask about how other women are really doing. Support their struggles and their successes equally. Highlight how our shared experiences create a unique bond, to be leveraged for collective action and mutual support. Amplify the role of female-led local grassroots organizations and collective efforts in making real-world impact.

• Use Your Voice to Amplify Other Women -- Whether in professional meetings, on social media, or in real life conversations, highlight and center the achievements and contributions of other women. When women are interrupted, which happens frequently. Point it out. When women are over-explained about things they already have the capability and capacity to understand, point that out, too. Women’s voices matter. Advocacy and allyship for other women build collective strength.

• Lead with Compassion -- Assume good intentions. Give the benefit of the doubt. Know that we’re all in this together. Understand that every woman carries unseen battles. That we’re each overcoming our own set of struggles and insecurities. Compassion and open curiosity soften the judgmental and critical edges. And potentially opens doors for connection and opportunity to lift each other up. Turning turmoil into medicine.