Today is International Women’s Day so I figured it’s the perfect time to celebrate the influential women of our day! I put together a list of 25 women from all walks of life who are in some way inspirational and show that women can do literally anything. Take some time to appreciate the amazing women in your life today or if you are a woman, applaud yourself because you are pretty damn awesome! Without further ado, let me introduce you to these 25 strong women, the Wonder Women of our age (in no particular order)!
- Malala Yusafzai
Malala is a Pakistani activist for girls’ education. She was shot by a Taliban gunman in 2012 in an attempt to stop her activism. She survived and went on to become the youngest-ever Nobel Prize laureate and found her own charity.
- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Adichie is a Nigerian activist, feminist and author. Perhaps her most well known work is a book-length essay called We Should All Be Feminists. Her TED Talk was also sampled in Beyoncé’s album.
- Margaret Atwood
Atwood is an author best known for her book The Handmaid’s Tale. She has won numerous literary awards and is widely known all over the world. Her books often deal with themes such as gender, identity and religion and criticize the power dynamics in society.
- Francesca Martinez
Martinez is a comedian, actor and disability rights activist. She has toured internationally as a comedian and is well-known especially in her homeland England. She questions the idea of normalcy in her sketches and aims to spread awareness about disabled rights.
- Sunetra Gupta
Gupta is a British infectious disease epidemiologist. She has done research on the transmission dynamics of infectious diseases including Covid-19 and has received numerous awards for her work. She is also a professor in Oxford.
- Kataluna Enriquez
Enriquez is an American beauty pageant and fashion designer. She was crowned Miss Nevada USA last year and became the first openly transgender woman to complete in the Miss USA pageant. She uses her platform to spread awareness about trans rights and mental health.
- Samia Sululu Hassan
Hassan is Tanzania’s first-ever female president. She acted as vice president from 2015 onwards and became president last year. She was also the fifth-ever female African leader to address the UN General Assembly.
- Emma Watson
Watson is an actress and an activist. She is best known for her role as Hermione Granger but she also actively advocates for women’s rights. More recently, she has also used her platform to promote sustainable fashion.
- Ursula von der Leyen
Von der Leyen is best known for being the president of the European Commission. She is the first-ever woman to hold said position. She is a highly successful politician who has made a difference not only in her home country Germany but also everywhere else in Europe.
- Yaa Gyasi
Gyasi is a Ghanaian-American novelist. Especially her first book Homecoming has received praise from critics and she has also won numerous awards for it. She discusses racial inequality in her work and can also be considered an activist.
- Tokiko Shimizu
Shimizu is the first-ever female director of the Bank of Japan, a position that she was chosen for in 2020. She is one of the six directors of the bank. Before being appointed for the job, she worked as the bank’s general manager for Europe.
- Parinya Charoenphol
Charoenphol, also known as Nong Toom is a Thai boxer, model and actress. She is openly trans and advocates for trans rights. She has won several championships in Thai boxing in her career.
- Katie Piper
Piper is a model, author, television presenter and philanthropist. She suffered an acid attack in 2008 which left her blind in one eye. She survived and founded a foundation to support people with severe burns and disfigurement injuries.
- Beyoncé Knowles
As one of the most successful musicians of our time, she hardly needs any introduction. She is not only a hugely popular artist but also an actress. She has won countless awards in her career including 28 Grammy Awards.
- Ava DuVernay
She is a successful filmmaker, producer and director. She was the first-ever woman of color to direct a $100-million-crossing film and the first Black woman to be nominated by the Academy Awards as a director. Her series When They See Us became the most-watched series on Netflix.
- Serena Williams
This woman hardly needs much introduction either. Williams is a tennis player and frankly, one of the most legendary athletes of our time. She has won countless championships and has been ranked World’s number one tennis player for 319 weeks, 186 of them in a row.
- Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
Okonjo-Iweala is an economist and international development professional. She is the first-ever woman and the first African to work as director-general of the World Trade Organization. She has also served as Nigeria’s Finance Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs.
- Chantal Mouffe
Mouffe is a Belgian political theorist and author. Her works discuss mostly post-Marxism and agonistic political theory and they include books such as The Democratic Paradox. She used to teach at the University of Westminster but is nowadays retired.
- Katie Sowers
Sowers is a football player (American football) and coach. In 2020, she became the first woman and the first openly gay person to coach at the Super Bowl 2020. She also advocates for LGBT+ rights and had her own LGBT+ friendly Super Bowl commercial with Microsoft.
- Leymah Gbowee
Gbowee is a Liberian peace activist. She is known for rallying women to pressure leaders into ending the civil war in Liberia. She received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011 along with Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Tawakkol Karman.
- Dame Sarah Storey
Storey is a British paralympic athlete in not only swimming but also cycling. She has a total of 28 paralympic metals, 17 of which are gold. She won five of her gold medals before turning 19.
- Ceyenne Doroshow
Doroshow is an author, activist and performer. She works to improve the rights of transgender people and especially transgender sex workers. She has founded her own charity that focuses on providing sustainable, holistic care for people in the LGBT+ community.
- Roxane Gay
Gay is a feminist, activist, author and public speaker, among other things. She writes about issues such as race, gender identity, sexual identity and disability. She has also worked as a professor at Purdue University.
- Sharice Davids
Davids is an American politician. She is the first openly LGBT+ Native American selected to US congress and among the first two Native American women selected to congress. Before her career as a politician, she used to be a lawyer and a MMA fighter.
- Cynthia Kenyon
Kenyon is an American molecular biologist and biogerontologist. She specifies in genetic studies regarding aging. She is the vice president of aging research at Calico Research Labs and she also used to teach at the University of California.
Sources: Wikipedia articles for each of the women mentioned above