10 Extraordinarily Empowering Facebook Groups for Women

If you're not already addicted to Facebook's "groups" feature, you need to be — groups are nothing short of life changing and will transform your ho-hum newsfeed experience into a dynamic open discussion with thousands of other people. They're perfect sounding boards for expressing yourself, getting ideas, and seeing new things at ground level. If you ask us, there's no better way to trend source and find likeminded people, making Facebook groups the ultimate business tool.

Beyond networking, though, Facebook groups are a safe haven for women and minorities to protect and encourage each other, and that's pretty cool.

We put together the top 10 Facebook groups you need to join now because they each offer a diverse group of members, have mandatory “be nice to others" policies, and we've personally witnessed oodles of new connections between people who were formerly strangers.

If you own your own business, this one is a great place to meet other entrepreneurs, grab advice, bounce ideas off others, and collaborate. You may find yourself wealthier if you interact nicely with other members, but you'll definitely find yourself richer in friendship.

Everyone loves going places, right? Travel Obsessed has a nice-people-only rule, and encourages people to share their travel experience, ask for travel tips and guidance, and interact about everything travel.

If your business or personal life takes you on the road or you have general wanderlust, this one is for you.

The group is particularly empowering because it was started in response to another travel-themed Facebook group that banned several types of women because of their nationality and religion. Travel Obsessed has an “all are welcome" policy and encourages kindness between all members.

This one is for moms exclusively, but moms come from all walks of life, and this group is pretty inclusive. Over 33,000 moms are in there bouncing ideas off each other, tackling tough issues, asking and sharing advice, and even giving their kid gear to each other. It's especially useful for new moms who feel trapped in the chaos of parenting and need people going through the same thing.

This group was started by the original media czar, Jennifer Demarchi, as a place for publicists and marketing professionals to collaborate and help each other expand their media footprints. The group is now over 20,000 members strong and has over 70% female members, including major Fortune 500 executives, top level magazine editors, and even a few celebs.

The group isn't for everyone though, so if you're not directly involved in the media in some way, shape, or form, don't try to get past the gate.

This group is dedicated to anyone in the beauty industry and even general makeup, hair, and beauty enthusiasts. You don't have to be a makeup artist to be admitted, but you do have to generally live and love all things. You don't have to be a makeup artist to be admitted, but you do have to generally live and love all things beauty. The group is home to just about every beauty editor in the, top dermatologists, plastic surgeons, makeup artists, hair stylists, beauty bloggers of all styles and sizes, and models of all backgrounds. There are only two rules in this group: never try to sell anything to another group member (if you're selling Lipsense or Rodan + Fields you'll be kicked out), and always be kind to other group members.

This networking and biz-encouraging group was started by OG mom bloggers Vera Sweeney and Audrey McClelland. It's a good place to find blogging insights, digital wisdom, and virtual high fives when you need 'em.

This group is a smart feed of all things featured on Amy's Smart Girls, plus a round-up of links that inspire and motivate. Amy Poehler started the website with producer Martha Walker so girls have a place where they can just be themselves, and the resulting community embraces everything weird and wonderful about life, while helping girls improve themselves through intelligence and learning.

Fans of the already-popular website, The Curvy Fashionista, continue their body-positive and inclusive discussions in this group, and spending even 10 minutes perusing the posts will make you want to hop on board the positivity train. It's a virtual grandma telling you “you're beautiful and look nice today" and women of all shapes and sizes should definitely check it out.

This is another great place to bounce ideas, make new friends, and figure out the nuts and bolts of business ownership.

You'll find tens of thousands of women talking business and finding ways to make the most of each other's resources. If you don't leave a 20-minute session feeling full of ideas, call us shocked.

This article was originally published October 31, 2019.