"Against what I can only imagine were immense pressures, he encouraged me to take challenging entrance exams, apply for highly competitive scholarships and even start a home-based business at the age of 17," she wrote.

In the white paper, titled "Financial Support Critical to Greater Female Leadership," Manus and Ostrowski identified three areas where credit unions and industry organizations can help empower women around the world: Scholarships, microfinance and equal pay.

Scholarships, of course, provide financial support for students seeking education, but Manus added that educational assistance also helps affirm women in their struggle to improve themselves in environments in which others often told them they couldn't, and shouldn't even try.

Speaking to the success she realized through scholarship funds, Manus recounted, "I had earned more than money to send me to school; I had earned dignity and respect from my family and community, all while hopefully setting an example for other young women in my corner of the world."

The white paper recommended credit unions support the World Council's Global Women's Network Scholarship program or the State Employees' Credit Union Foundation's cooperative effort to train teachers in Appalachia. It also suggested credit unions support an effort launched by the $593 million, 58,000-member LAFCU in Lansing, Mich., Women Helping Educate Every Lady, which helps educate women who want to enter or reenter the workforce.

Manus and Ostrowski also wrote about the importance of microfinance, which can provide women with resources they can deploy as needed. Even though the amounts of money were not large, the authors recounted the revolutionary impact small loans have made by helping move poor women away from jobs that barely sustained them and toward more reliable work that bettered their economic situations.

"In Khairo Dero, a village in southern Pakistan, a small team of community workers at the Ali Hasan Mangi Memorial Trust saw the results of allowing microcredit funds to be used in the manner its female beneficiaries found best," Manus wrote, quoting the team. "We listened to their ideas, which were far better than ours. Someone set up a vegetable stall in her neighborhood, someone bought a freezer and made ice cream to sell in the hot summer months, someone else bought sandals and cosmetics from the city and sold them in the village at a profit."

The white paper urged credit unions and their leaders to increase their involvement in these causes by investing in microfinance institutions. Such efforts represent not just philanthropy, but investment opportunites, Manus and Ostrowski wrote. In 2013, a study of 100 microfinance institutions found they delivered a return on investment of 3%, according to the white paper.

In addition, equal pay, Manus and Ostrowski pointed out, further empowers women to strengthen their economies in the developed and developing world, as well as urges them to save more money for their short- and long-term needs.

Credit unions and their leadership teams should take an active role in helping reduce the salary gap between men and women by auditing their organizations' salaries, promoting more women and advocating for legal changes with legislators, the white paper stated.

"For those of us in high-level leadership positions, it is important to have a complete understanding of the wages paid to our employees," Ostrowski wrote. "Conducting salary audits will help us proactively monitor and solve any gender-based pay differences that exist within our organizations."