It's International Women's Day! It's a day to celebrate wonderful women, everyday women, and the women in your life who inspire you, support you and uplift you. Though great strides have been made throughout history to improve women's rights, we've got a long road ahead of us and infinitely more work to do.
How can you help? You can teach the young women in your own life to value themselves exactly as they are, and that they deserve the best, even if certain aspects of society tell them otherwise. You can pledge to always help other women and to never put a woman down for making decisions different than your own. You can talk to women with diverse life experiences and open your mind to understand how much progress there is still left to be made.
Once you're already doing all of the above, another great way to contribute to the goal of reaching gender equality is to donate your time or some money to a women's organization. It's not always easy to know who to donate to, taking into account your own values and beliefs and having the choice between thousands of organizations and causes. We've got four organizations for you that work toward improving the rights of all women, women of any race, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity or gender identity.
Women Impacting Public Policy. WIPP is a "national nonpartisan public policy organization that advocates for and on behalf of women and minorities in business in the legislative processes of our nation, creating economic opportunities and building bridges and alliances to other small business organizations," WIPP said. This allows women and minorities to secure an income, gain independence and live comfortable, happy lives.
The Malala Fund. Inspired by the amazing Malala Yousafzai, the fund and its supporters "invest in local leaders and organisations that are delivering quality secondary education for girls. [They] believe that real and lasting change for girls will ultimately come from empowered local leadership as well as increased global commitment to girls' secondary education," The Malala Fund said.
Women for Women. Operating for more than 20 years, Women for Women works with women and girls in conflict-stricken areas of the world. Their "yearlong social and economic empowerment program provides marginalized women with the opportunity, often for the first time in their lives, to come together in classes of 25 women to build support networks, to share experiences, to learn critical skills, and to access new resources," Women for Women said.
NOW. NOW is a women's organization whose many missions include "winning economic equality and securing it with an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that will guarantee equal rights for women; championing abortion rights, reproductive freedom and other women's health issues; opposing racism; fighting bigotry against the LGBTQIA community; and ending violence against women," the organization said.
