The public often associates Ladies with Causes and in this they are both right and wrong. The vision is often the charitable fundraiser for the not-at-all controversial "good cause". The reality is that there is that for some, but many ladies have also been at the forefront of civil rights, suffrage and other big social battles.
To call oneself a lady is to claim social power. It is to recognize that simply by behaving yourself you can gain influence. Part of the duty of a lady to to use that influence when one can. This is not to say that one should take up every cause, or that one should "call out" others or talk endlessly about ones cause. A just cause is not a reason to be impolite or a bore, and doing so weakens your voice. It is to say that from time to time a lady must put her efforts in to something bigger than she, and use that social power to try to move society, even just a little, to being a kinder and more humane place.
Often this might take the form of active involvement by sharing information, polite protests, or developing support systems for people who have been treated unkindly. Another way a lady can sometimes help is simply by being herself. For example I practice an unusual and sometimes maligned religion. I mention it when appropriate and joke about it when I can. Knowing someone in a group is giving a face to something that would otherwise be scary and "out there", ladies often make very good faces for groups that might otherwise be maligned.
So take a moment and think about what you care about, what you wish to speak for, what you can stand up for and whom you can make society a little easier for, then do not do it all but do something. Being a lady is often about careful choices, please consider not just when you can be kinder and more polite but when you can gently urge others to do so as well
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