Michelle Salzman: Strength, Faith, and Women’s Empowerment

Not every empowered woman begins with opportunity. In fact, I would argue that most women in leadership had to forge their own path to success.

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When the editors of Local Pulse invited me to contribute this piece in honor of Women’s History Month, I immediately thought about what empowerment really means. Not the polished version we often see, but the one we live every day. The one that begins long before success is ever visible.

A story of resilience almost always begins with survival.

I didn’t grow up in comfort or stability. I grew up learning to endure, to adapt, and eventually, to rise. My empowerment wasn’t handed to me. It was built from within, one hard decision at a time.

And I want to share this with you, woman to woman: empowerment isn’t about slogans or social media trends. It’s about the quiet, daily choice to keep going when everything in your life is telling you to stop. It’s choosing discipline over despair, faith over fear, and purpose over pain.

Success feels different when you’ve known defeat.

Whether you’ve walked through divorce, job loss, miscarriage, a devastating accident, the loss of a loved one, or even the weight that comes from serving this great nation, trauma carries weight.

But that weight, over time, can carry gratitude.

When you’ve experienced failure, loss, or moments where you questioned if you could go on, your victories are not taken for granted.

They are earned. They are deeply felt.

There is a kind of joy that is steady and profound and that only comes from having been at your lowest and still finding the strength to stand again.

This is the part of empowerment we don’t talk about enough.

We celebrate the outcomes, but often skip over the process, the setbacks, the doubts, the sleepless nights when quitting would have been easier, and the days when “overwhelmed” doesn’t begin to describe how you feel.

But those moments are not detours. They are the foundation.

Adversity, when faced head-on, doesn’t weaken you.

It refines you.

It shapes you into someone stronger, steadier, and more resilient than you were before.

Strength that comes easily can fade just as quickly. But strength built through adversity is different.

It’s anchored. It’s tested.

It doesn’t crumble under pressure because it was created under pressure.

When you’ve had to fight your way forward, when you’ve had to rebuild from nothing, you develop a kind of endurance that can’t be taught. It can only be lived.

And that endurance changes everything.

It changes how you lead, how you serve, and how you show up for others. You begin to recognize struggle in other people, not as weakness, but as potential. You understand that someone’s hardest season may be preparing them for their greatest purpose.

And instead of judging, you reach back and you help pull someone else forward.

Because empowerment, at its core, isn’t about avoiding hardship. It’s about being transformed through it. It’s about refusing to let your lowest moments have the final word. It’s understanding that what once tried to break you can, in time and with faith, become the very thing that builds you.

When you’ve experienced both the depths and the climb, your strength isn’t temporary; it becomes enduring.

And that kind of strength doesn’t just change your life. It equips you to change others.

So, when you reach your moments of victory, I encourage you to look to your right and to your left. Grab the hand of a friend, a colleague, another woman walking her own hard road, and bring her with you across the finish line.

Lift others as you stand.

Let them feel even a piece of the victory you’ve fought so hard to earn. Show them what’s possible, not just with your words, but with your actions.

Together, let’s use the paths we’ve forged to create a world filled with strong, resilient, and empowered women leaders.

Michelle Salzman, Florida House of Representatives, 1st District