You know over here at NAS, we tend to be irreverant, silly, naughty….and we like it that way, but we do all have a serious side (and NO this isn’t about old women pumping gas…sorta). Anyway, I was over at Karen’s the other day, lurking as usual when I stumbled on Skyla Dawn’s new project to benefit Equality Now, an organization that works for women’s rights all over the world (and no I’m not blogging about this to win a prize. I do have a point. It’ll just take me a bit to get there. I’m saying this because I think it’s important to say and as a writer, I’m in a place to say it).

We all know the atrocities committed against women all over the world, and I think oftentimes we find ourselves thinking, “It’s too much. There’s nothing I can do to help”. It’s almost overwhelming to think that a woman could be kidnapped and sold as a sex slave, killed for showing her face or walking down the street with the wrong man, but it happens. Hell even here in the United States women are killed trying to leave abusive relationships.

Guess what? There IS something you can do to help.

I started thinking about what I’d write about if I contributed something. In my fiction, one thing I try to convey is that woman can be sexually confident. That it’s okay to know what you want (and take it). That it’s okay to have fantasies, and masturbate and admire other…people. You get the picture.

So what would I want to tell another woman? That you’re strong and confident and that you can do anything you set your mind to. I believe strongly in the empowerment of women….whether I have to (very gently) tell a friend to put on her big girl panties and act like an adult (and stop expecting her parents to solve her problems for her) or cheer on another friend as she fights for her kid. I believe we should empower the women around us, including our daughters (if I had any), and I believe we should encourage the men in our lives to do likewise. Teach your daughters and sisters how to buy a car, how to check the oil, and the air in the tires, how to balance a check book, and even how to throw a mean right hook.

What have you done to empower yourself, or someone close to you lately? And if you haven’t, would you?