Pete Souza's Instagram of President Obama wearing a tiara while posing with a Girl Scout troop is getting quite a bit of circulation this week:

But I also appreciated this video of Obama at a charity event:

Rather than sorting the toys strictly based on gender lines, as most toy drives do now, Obama made sure to put sports equipment in the boxes set aside for girls. It's a little thing, but it means a lot. Obama has been making feminist gestures like this all year, culminating in last week's press conference, in which he only called on female reporters. Could Obama do more for American women? Absolutely. He should fight harder for reproductive rights. The Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was just a first step toward gender pay equity, and Obama hasn't followed through on that. But he's come a long way from the presidential candidate of 2008 who shut down a reporter with a condescending "sweetie."

Obama apologized for the comment a day later, but it certainly had an impact in a time when a lot of Democrats were still smarting at the pain of Obama beating Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination. These small gestures mean so much to people, and they demonstrate a deeper understanding of an important truth: if you put more thought and compassion into your everyday gestures, the world will slowly become a better place. In six years, Obama has shifted from casual sexism to casual empowerment. That's a big deal.