Our 2015 Top Ten List!

The Ten Most Womenabling Hashtags of the Year

Womenabling News 4th Quarter 2015

Greetings!

It's that time of the year ... time for Top Ten lists! Womenable has contributed to this annual year-end pursuit since 2009, focusing primarily on the most noteworthy womenabling news, events and research of the year or - in the case of 2013 (the 25th anniversary of the Women's Business Ownership Act of 1988) - of the previous 25 years.

Last year, we departed from our usual practice, distilling the top womenabling news of 2014 down to the top research-based factoids/soundbites.

This year, our 2015 Top Ten list - in keeping with growing trend toward shorter and sharper communication - is distilled even further, focusing on the top women's empowerment hashtags of the year.

Now, there have been many feminist/social issue hashtags (such as #BringBackOurGirls, #YesAllWomen, #EverydaySexism, and #MeuPrimeiroAssedio [myfirstharrassment]) as well as a few interesting corporate "You Go, Girl" hashtags (with corresponding well-produced videos: #LikeaGirl and #ShineStrong primary among them), but our list focuses on empowerment as a social media conversation.

So here, in alphabetical order within the general topic of conversation, is Womenable's assessment of the Top Ten women's empowerment hashtags of 2015:

All for One/One for All

These three hashtags are focused on rallying fellow women - and men - in working together for greater gender equality. teamwork

#AllinForHer, an initiative of Women Moving Millions.
#HeforShe, an effort launched by UN Women on #IWD2014 with the star power of Emma Watson.
#IronSisters, an exhortation of Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes for women to help other women, especially in non-traditional fields such as STEM.

Confronting Stereotypes

These three hashtag campaigns rose up from women responding to sexist stereotypes: the "boys with toys" notion that only men like technology or engineering, or to throwback ad campaigns.

#GirlsWithToys: a social media response to an offhand comment from a male scientist, showing that girls like science, too.
The misogynistic responses from a seemingly harmless company recruitment campaign prompted this hashtag response. #ILookLikeanEngineer is well worth a look.
The feminist social media response from a "what were they thinking" ad campaign launched by a mobile phone company in India #WhatWomenLove, is likewise well worth reading. (Also, this just in: IBM, normally a forward-thinking corporation with respect to gender diversity, is catching flak for an ill-thought-out hashtag campaign, #HackaHairDryer. Sheesh!)

Entrepreneurial Women

The only one of our top ten hashtags focused on women's entrepreneurship, this social multi-media campaign gathered the stories of 1,000 women who are growing their own enterprising ventures.

#1000Stories, from our friends at The Story Exchange.

Where are the Women?

These three social media conversations highlight the fact that women are still missing from many seats of power, and are underrepresented in STEM professions.

How to solve challenges in science, technology, engineering and math? #AddWomen!
It's lonely at the top. A recent video from Elle Magazine in the UK, with the hashtag #MoreWomen, shows this in eye-catching fashion.
The No Ceilings initiative from the Clinton Foundation showcases some of the tremendous progress being made worldwide in the area of gender equality, while admitting that we're #NotThere yet.

Christmas Bonus!

And here's a special bonus hashtag, #PayGapWTF , a youth-focused response to learning that, yes, women are still paid less than men for the same work. WTF indeed!