Madeleine Albright, the first female American secretary of state, famously said, “There’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help each other.” Those words have since become something of a feminist touchstone referencing women in the workplace looking out for each other by pushing back against the outmoded ideal of the patriarchy that assumes the superiority of men.

However, women helping women is a concept that should exist not just within the workplace, but outside it too — before reaching the workplace, actually — if both the gender wealth and wage gaps are to be significantly narrowed over the course of the next generation. It’s no secret that women are the ones who suffer as a result of having lower net worth than men, and are more financially vulnerable. Women helping women, and not competing with each other, is therefore critical in order to see more of us in positions of power and influence. Recent research in the Harvard Business Review found that, although men and women both benefit from networks of connected peers across groups, women with an inner circle of other women contacts are more likely to land executive positions with higher pay, whilst no link was found for men in terms of their success vis-à-vis the gender composition of their inner circle. Women must be the change they desire. This is something high net worth women instinctively understand.

Melinda Gates — who has recently been in the news because of the announcement of her divorce from Bill, her husband of 27 years, and one of the world’s richest men — has always been a champion of gender equality. In fact, Melinda, who is expected to remain co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, one of the most powerful and influential forces in global public health, has committed US$1 billion over 10 years to expanding women’s power and influence in the US. “I want to see more women in the position to make decisions, control resources, and shape policies and perspectives. I believe that women’s potential is worth investing in,” she wrote in an op-ed in Time Magazine in 2019.

She identified three areas as priority: dismantling barriers to women’s professional advancement; fast-tracking women in sectors with outsized impact on society, like tech, media, and public office; and mobilising shareholders, consumers, and employees to amplify external pressure on companies and organisations in need of reform.

One billion dollars — US at that — is, of course, a lot of money. And you may say, well, I don’t have that kind of money. But you don’t have to. You may not be Melinda Gates, but on your journey to building personal wealth, you can’t afford to have tunnel-vision. Wealth is merely a means to an end, not an end in itself. Philanthropy is a responsibility that seeks to make the lot of the next generation even better, and so should be embraced in whatever way you can in your support of Jamaican women and girls, who in many instances just need to know that the possibility exists for them to rise above their socio-economic conditions.

There are so many things you can do, if you think strategically with women in mind. For one, become a mentor to a girl. Show girls how to manage daily finances in order to better meet their short- and long-term financial goals when they get older. Also, help them to gain skills they might not even be thinking of. Not everyone needs to aim for the already saturated field of law, and so on. There are a wealth of opportunities as it relates to career opportunities; we just need to be exposed to them or be determined to craft our own. Not all jobs will necessarily require advance degrees; they are there for the taking. On the path to financial freedom women and girls need to understand the possibilities rather than eking out a hand-to-mouth existence.

Consider, too, providing certain kinds of financial information to a group of high-school girls especially from lower-income households, to empower them to start thinking from an early age about the language of money and investment. Do you have a business? Invite them to come and see a woman with access to economic opportunity running a gender-inclusive workplace that promotes stability and wealth.

You can also, maybe, help fledgling female entrepreneurs to secure the requisite capital and technical assistance they need for the success of their businesses; as well as, connecting them to the professional networks that will help them not only launch but also grow their businesses. Help women to focus on breaking down cultural barriers that seek to limit their role in their own financial affairs by allowing them to see that they can create and accumulate wealth for themselves and their families.

As women, we must actively reverse that stereotype that women don’t support each other. When one of us succeeds, it is a win for all of us.