The Ripple Effect of Women's Empowerment:A Reflection on International Women’s Day
The Ripple Effect of Women's Empowerment:
A Reflection on International Women’s Day
Today, on International Women's Day, I find myself reflecting not just on the strength and resilience of women across the world, but actually on the ways in which we, often unknowingly, disempower ourselves.
I recently became aware of a pattern within myself. I noticed that my ongoing anxieties about how I am perceived in my own organization, my impulse to people-please as a way to avoid experiencing anxious attachment, were causing me to withdraw from fully supporting the women around me. I was engaging in coping strategies that disempowered me, because deep down, I still saw myself as someone in survival mode, someone who needed the approval of others to feel safe. And in turn, this fear-driven state led me to disempower those working with me.
This realization led me to a larger question: how else do we do this in our society?
Every woman I know struggles with worrying about how she is being perceived. We scrutinize our behaviors, bodies, emotions, and thoughts under a relentless and unforgiving microscope. We understand, intellectually, that these fears are deeply rooted in generations of systemic trauma, women have been conditioned, for centuries, to seek approval, to make themselves small, to survive by being agreeable. The fear and anxiety are not the problem. But the ways in which we cope with them can either empower us, or reinforce the idea that we are still in survival mode, still weak, still victims.
And here’s where it gets even deeper: our coping mechanisms ripple outward.
We know that women are deeply connected to a collective consciousness. Our fears, anxieties, and disempowering behaviors are not just our own, they are passed from mother to daughter, sister to sister, aunt to niece, grandmother to granddaughter, friend to friend, teacher to student. Every time we respond to stress with avoidance, self-doubt, or people-pleasing, we are not just reinforcing that message within ourselves, we are transmitting it to other women around us!
So, the most important question we should ask ourselves as women is this: How do I practice becoming aware of the ways I cope with stress and anxiety in ways that disempower me, and therefore others? And how can I gently shift toward a different energetic wavelength, one of love, grace, abundance, joy, connection, and faith?
For me, this looks like learning to let go of control and trust the wisdom of the women around me. I practice having faith in them. Notice that I did not say, I practice letting go of anxiety. Because anxiety will always be a part of me, to some degree. The problem (or the solution) lies in how I deal with it, dance with it, and cope with it.
So, I let go of control when my six-year-old daughter tells me she wants to cut one side of her hair very short and let the other side grow long, because I refuse to let fear of how others perceive her (or me) disempower us.
I let go of control when my best friend wants to bring me food as an act of love and support, because I refuse to let fear of being a burden disempower us.
I let go of control when a woman at my heart-driven organization tells me we’ve made the right (or wrong) decision, because I refuse to let fear of failure disempower us.
And what do we gain from this? Liberation.
Are we worthy of it? YES.
Is anyone outside of us meant to liberate us? No.
Because this is an internal journey, one that will break us down, build us back up, humble us, and teach us the power of faith. Faith in ourselves, in the women around us, and in our higher power.
May the goddess in all of you dance freely, sing loudly, and live boldly.
Happy International Women’s Day. 💛
With love and gratitude,
Dr. Hasti Raveau, PhD, LP
Founder & CEO
Founder & CEO
