12 Activities for Women’s Empowerment (2024)

The Women’s Empowerment movement supports gender equality. Across the world, women experience greater rates of poverty, abuse, and other hardships than men do.

Women tend to be the caregivers for families, emotionally, physically, and in many cases financially.

This is especially difficult as women tend to have a lower income than men, even in the same workplace roles.

While women’s roles are improving and gender gaps decrease, we should empower one another. The most important women’s empowerment activity we can engage in is creating groups of women and girls to support and teach one another.

Within these groups, we can teach our daughters to choose powerful role models, build their self-esteem, honor family traditions, celebrate girl power with books, movies, and music, and create art that inspires women’s empowerment. We have gathered 12 amazing women’s empowerment activities to do with your women’s group.

One Dozen Women’s Empowerment Activities

1. Research women in your family and be inspired by their strength and courage.
2. Have a Girl Power movie night
3. Learn about impactful women as role models in different careers, the arts, and charities.
4. Host a Women’s Career Day at local schools.
5. Host a Women’s Workshop
6. Host dinner parties.
7. Support woman-owned businesses.
8. Create Empowering Art
9. Listen to Empowering Music
10. Write letters supporting women in your community
11. Volunteer to support underserved women in your community.
12. Start a book club.

1.Research Women in Your Family

Change begins at home, and many of us are inspired by our family members who paved the way for us to forge ahead into a new and better future.

Take the time to learn your genealogy. We all have family histories full of women who have overcome obstacles to make a good life for their children.

Go through your family photos and find out the stories. Then, create an album or a scrapbook celebrating the strengths of the powerful women in your family.

2.Watch Girl Power Movies

Sometimes we need a girl’s night in. Sit with your kids and choose an empowering film and a big bowl of popcorn.

Talk about the movie and how the women overcome problems they faced in the movie. If you love legal thrillers, try Erin Brockovich. Are you into action films?

Charlie’s Angels or Wonder Woman may be suitable for your family. Consider watching Miss Congeniality, A League of Their Own, Lady Bird, Little Miss Sunshine, Legally Blonde, or Pitch Perfect for comedy fans.

If you are looking for some inspirational non-fiction, watch Hidden Figures, Frida, I am Malalaor Soul Surfer. Of course, for younger children, you have the Disney Princesses to choose from.

3.Investigate “Sheroes” as Role Models

Invite women leaders from the community to come and speak with the girls in the group.

Show the girls what kinds of opportunities they can look forward to as adults. Have the girls research the careers they are interested in and how to prepare for those careers, whether it is a trade school, community college, university, or post-graduate work. It’s never too early to have a plan.

We often talk about encouraging young women to pursue careers in STEM, but that doesn’t mean we should turn our back on the arts if that is what they are interested in.

Teach your girl’s group about women in creative roles from painters to movie directors to architects.

You can study a particular artist then try your hand at their art form. Find women in your community who create art and invite them to teach an art class for your group.

Art does not have to be intimidating. You can decorate posters with inspirational girl power quotes.

Take the group out and practice photography with your smartphone – no fancy equipment needed. Bring in some painting supplies and imitate some famous female painters.

4.Host a Women’s Career Day at Local Schools

Arrange for some female community leaders and businesswomen to come to schools and talk with the students.

Introduce them at a young age to ideas of gender equality in the workplace.

5.Host a Women’s Workshop

Organize a Saturday retreat or workshop and invite women from the community to gather for women’s empowerment activities.

You can include sessions on budgeting, parenting, family life, creativity, self-care, and self-esteem.

Another option is to offer skills classes on topics like entrepreneurship, public speaking, computer and business skills, and interview and resumé writing skills.

6.Host a Women’s Dinner Party

A large group may not give people the opportunity to bond on a personal level. A way to get to know one another better is to have smaller dinner parties.

This allows your group members to speak in a more private setting and offer more individual advice.

Also, we all love food, which is a great way to share affordable recipes and dinner ideas that women can take home to their families.

7.Support Women’s Businesses

Encourage the women in your community to shop at locally owned women’s businesses.

Small business owners need community support, and you can be deliberate about where your money goes.

8.Be Creative

Get your creative juices flowing. Groups of all sizes and ages can participate in creating activities. For example, create vision boards as described above.

Choose a mantra or inspirational quotation and make a poster. Develop a #onewordgoal.

A one-word goal is like a New Year’s resolution, but it just a single word that you can apply to all areas of your life.

Make a vision board. Think about the hopes and dreams you have for yourself and the women in your life.

You can each create a vision board individually or for your girl’s group. Find images, inspirational quotes, and photos to put on the board.

Add written-out goals for your life. Hang the board in a common area and talk about how you will achieve the goals that are on it.

9.Listen to Empowering Music

While you are doing other activities, you can play empowering music. We could all use a little more dance party in our lives.

Try some songs from this list from Parade.com or this one from Refinery29. Remember that you need R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

10.Write a Letter

Send a letter to your future self or your past self. Tell yourself what you really need to hear. Write to your daughters. Let them know how to live as strong women.

Share your dreams for them. Write to women in your community. Tell your female community leaders how much you appreciate the work they do for women in your town.

Write to the underserved women in the community. They need support and empowerment as well. A few kind words can go a long way.

11.Volunteer

Step out of your comfort zone and grow into a more powerful woman. Growth requires movement and discomfort.

Work with local organizations to improve conditions for women in your community. Find an organization or a mission that provides support for underserved and struggling women in your community and find out how you can help.

12.Host a Book Club

Read books by and about women. Some can be inspirational and non-fiction. Try a recent bio about Ruth Bader Ginsberg or the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

But feel free to read anything. Wonder Woman or Black Widow comics? Fair game. Need a good romance novel? Go for it.

Cook your way through a recipe book. Read and talk together. Lift one another up.

Advancing Women’s Empowerment Globally

The United Nations Women group (UN Women) has developed a program that outlines promising business practices that businesses can adopt to close the gaps between men and women in the workplace and the community.

You can find the document here: “The Power of Working Together Emerging Practices that Advance Women’s Economic Empowerment” Through their research and discussion across multiple countries, UN Women has established the following seven principles for closing the gender gap in business.

• Principle 1: Establish high-level corporate leadership for gender equality
• Principle 2: Treat all women and men fairly at work – respect and support human rights and nondiscrimination
• Principle 3: Ensure the health, safety, and well-being of all women and men workers
• Principle 4: Promote education, training, and professional development for women
• Principle 5: Implement enterprise development, supply chain, and marketing practices that empower women
• Principle 6: Promote equality through community initiatives and advocacy
• Principle 7: Measure and publicly report on progress to achieve gender equality

These principles are the result of collaboration between the UN Global Compact and UN Women, and are adapted from the Calvert Women’s Principles®

Final Words

Empowering women in the future starts at home. Teach your children to be respectful and to have strong self-worth. Examine your family history and set goals for your future.

Teach one another how to be successful at home and in the workplace. Explore your creativity and hone your abilities.