For those of you who are long-time readers of our “What the Elle” newsletter, you may recall that we’re not huge fans of the term “empower” here at Ellevest.

Why?

Because the dictionary definition of the word is “to be given power.”

Except that we women have power: As a group, we make up half the population, we control trillions of dollars of investable assets, and we direct more than 80% of consumer spending. We don’t need to be given power: We just need to choose to use the power we have.

Fair enough.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about the flip side of this idea: all the ways that women have been convinced to give up power — power that’s right there in front of us, ours for the taking — and most often not even realizing it.