Get Empowered: A Practical Guide to Thrive, Heal, and Embrace Your Confidence in a Sexist World

A practical guide for women, nonbinary, and LGBTQIA+ people to claim our right to be safe, to take up space, and to speak up for ourselves.

Don’t walk alone at night. Don’t leave your drink unattended. Don’t hurt anyone’s feelings.
    Most women and nonbinary people are taught these rules, intended to keep us safe from harassment, abuse, and assault, from a young age. While the #MeToo movement has swept the globe and shined a light on the pervasiveness of gender-based violence that led to these “rules,” the fears persist—and for good reason.
    While men—who commit almost all gender-based violence—are the ones who should be responsible for changing, those of us who are targeted shouldn’t have to wait for the world to transform and become a better place in order to live safer, fuller, more authentic lives.
Through real-life stories, meaningful questions, and interactive exercises, Get Empowered will teach readers to:

• understand why gendered violence exists and how it shows up

• take up space
• say what they want
• let go of self-blame
• heal from past traumas

    Whether you’re looking for ways to stand up for yourself, you’re a survivor focused on healing, or you’re committed to being an ally, this book will give you the tools you need to thrive.

Nadia Telsey pioneered the field of verbal and emotional (as opposed to solely physical) self-defense, beginning with the cofounding of the feminist Center for Anti-Violence Education in Brooklyn in 1970. She has taught self-defense to thousands of students in the U.S. and abroad, including for seventeen years at the University of Oregon, where her class has been the subject of research on the efficacy of the approach. Her work against gender-based violence included many years serving on the Oregon Attorney General’s Sexual Assault Task Force and has influenced a generation of self-defense instructors both in the U.S. and around the world.

Lauren R. Taylor has been working to end gender-based violence since 1978, when she cofounded Washington, D.C.’s first shelter for abused women and their children. As an empowerment self-defense teacher, she’s facilitated close to 2,000 classes and workshops to more than 35,000 people. Taylor writes extensively on violence prevention and interpersonal violence. Her work has been featured in The Washington Post, Self, and The Huffington Post, and on National Public Radio, Upworthy, Quartz, Mic, and more.