Support Black women now and always.
We need to proactively support women of color. Now and always.
Empower Collective was created to give women resources and platforms to explore barriers to their success and reach their goals. It’s a community driven to empower women - all women. Feminism isn’t limited to white women and gender equality impacts everyone. We have a long way to go toward gender equality, but this up-hill battle is even steeper for women of color. As an organization committed to bringing equality to a marginalized group of our society through conversation and discovery, we have to be active, not passive, in advocating for women of all colors and backgrounds.
As a White woman leading this community, I want to make one thing very clear: gender equality is something that impacts all humans, and in turn, in order to find a solution, we cannot leave anybody behind. Women of color are a key part of the conversation.
The Black Lives Matter movement and recent protests have caused me to reflect and take deliberate actions in my own life, which I look forward to continuing, particularly through the Empower Collective platform.
Like so many of you, I’ve been doing a lot of self-reflection and self-education. Here are some resources that have been particularly helpful to me personally, that I highly recommend to everyone in this community:
Hood Feminism, a book by Mikki Kendall
(here’s where you can find a local Black-owned bookstore in your state)
Self Made, a 4-part series on Netflix starring Octavia Spencer, Tiffany Haddish, and Carmen Ejogo
Women At Work podcast 3-part series on sisterhood
Listening to stories of Black women and growing my understanding of the experiences and challenges so many Black women face has caused me to refine Empower Collective’s focus to ensure we actively promote diversity and encourage conversations that truly cause us all to learn from people who are different from ourselves. My eyes are open and it’s clear to me now more than ever that in order to truly progress, we can’t simply assume we’re being inclusive, we need to proactively promote racial equality.
The “collective” in Empower Collective includes Black women. This community is for you.
We are making a commitment to incorporating more recommended content by Black authors, speakers, and experts in our discussion guides and promoted content. We are committing to sharing stories and experiences of Black women. We’re committing to ensuring all Empower Collective events include a diverse range of speakers, and that we actively seek participation and attendance by women of color.
What we do at Empower Collective is centered around opening up dialogues for us all to grow and progress. The importance of open dialogue in order to inflict change has been amplified recently, and the good news is it’s already at the heart of what we do. We are committed to amplifying voices of Black women and ensuring we include all women in our mission of empowering each other to reach our goals.