What ways do you think are most helpful to bring change?

Volunteering for women, donating to women, tutoring or mentoring young women in need.

Last year I hosted my first women's retreat. I'm hosting another in September. I'm using it as a way to raise women's self esteem and to get them to look at the men in their lives more critically. Just spending time with the women around me and being a good example of success and happiness is how I'm striving to make a difference.

I believe you can have the biggest impact if you try to help smaller causes in front of your own door, especially if your time/funds are limited and you don't work in a field where you can make huge impact in your professional life (e.g. politics, law enforcement or teaching). Even a little help or money can mean so much there. If every charity helping women had a strong support network of locals who are right where the help is needed behind it, their work would be so much easier.

Personally, I am active in my old school's alumni organization which was very much an "old boys club" made up exclusively of old, white, conservative, straight men before I shouldered my way in there. The school used to be a boys' school and only became co-ed in the 80s and girls are still outnumbered by boys almost two to one. We give out scholarships, prizes, fund trips, clubs and activities related to the school and being a (reasonable but loud) voice for the interests of the female students there has a direct impact on the lifes of young girls. It's really rewarding to finally be able to tackle some of the issues that bothered me and my female classmates when I was still a student there.

I blast FDS-aligned thoughts on almost all my social media and hope the women in bad relationships who stumble on my posts will wake the fuck up and realize they're in bad relationships. I plant seeds of FDS in even the most dedicated pickmes.

I think it really depends on your context, and, what in what context you're wanting to help. It also depends on your skills, talents, where you want to put your energy. There are so many different things you could do./

The first is always to fill your own cup. take care of you. make sure you are good. from there you can give the most and be the most effective. and make an impact over the long term.

Then you need to break down what you want to do. do you want to provide/improve access for women in crisis? provide practical supports? Do you want to help emotionally/spiritually? Do you want to make sure women have employment opportunities? access to housing? Improve their financial literacy? Bring women together in community? Your community? Your country? A developing nation? Help their children/families?

What are YOUR unique skills?

You could get into law, politics, fund raising, counselling, crisis telephone lines volunteering, community gardens, creative groups, lobbying/advocacy, childcare, DV, business, i mean the opportunties are really endless. honestly that 80,000 hours website looks like a good starting point to spark some ideas and get the wheels turning, even if you don't want to 'make a career' out of it.

what do you want to do?

I volunteer at local nonprofits for causes that I’m passionate about, and I talk to women I encounter there as well as in daily life about my views regarding “highest benefit for women.” I donate clothing and supplies to women’s shelters, and organize for other women I know to do the same (such as collecting donations and then taking them in myself - I have found that many people would like to donate, if it’s made easy for them to do so, and sometimes the barrier really is just reaching out to a nonprofit and then driving there). Women’s shelters are not only just shelters, but also resource centers for women in all kinds of situations. They have information and people who can help women trying to escape abusive relationships, they help direct women to free or sliding-scale therapy, career coaching, childcare, and much more. They’re a great place to volunteer your time. If you don’t feel like you have the capacity to volunteer IN a shelter, you can always give them a call or send an email letting them know what your skill sets are and see if there’s anything you can do to help them within those skill sets. Maybe you’re good at building websites, and you can help update theirs. Maybe you have experience running payroll or book keeping; they likely need a treasurer or someone to help with organizing documents for their accountant. There’s tons of roles to fill that aren’t client-facing, if you prefer working out of the public eye.

I want to work in law or politics, and help advocate for Women and Girls. But at this moment, I just use my social media platforms to share what’s happening to women globally in terms of violence, what’s happening in Afghanistan etc and sharing information with people around me. I have a few thousand followers across my platforms but for like mental health reasons I try not to use social media as much

This website is called 80,000 hours. Use it to figure out how to make a difference.