Happy International Women’s Day 2014!
Since 1975, the United Nations has declared March 8th to be International Women’s Day. As a day to recognize women’s historical journey away from oppression and into equality, HC Hofstra takes a moment to recognize the women who we aspire to most.
This year’s designated theme of the day is “Inspiring Change“. Here are the women who have done inspiring things in the past year.
The 31 year old actress has single handedly taken Hollywood by story this year. Best known for her Oscar winning performance in 12 Years A Slave—which was her first role in a feature film—Lupita has also written and produced documentaries of her own.
From effortlessly stunting on red carpets and in magazines to accepting her awards with eloquent grace, Lupita is the epitome of beauty and brains.
A young Pakistani girl turned education activist, Malala was shot in the head in 2012 by the Taliban because she was simply trying to attend school. Not only was it a miracle that the 16 year old survived, but she went on to fight for children’s education worldwide.
The assassination attempt sparked an international outpouring of support for Yousafzai and the UN even launched a petition in her name, under the slogan, I am Malala, to ensure every child in the world recieve schooling by 2015.
The creative mind responsible for all your binge watching of Scandal and Grey’s Anatomy is rumored to have another show in the works with ABC. Get the popcorn and wine ready!
As far as Texas Democrats go, Wendy Davis is kind of a big deal. You may know her name from last summer when Davis performed an 11-hour filibuster to ensure that a bill restricting women’s abortion rights didn’t pass. In a state flooded with Republicans, Davis is an oasis for Southern Democrats. And you’ll be hearing her name a lot more now that she’s running for governor of Texas this November.
Proving that she is a force to be wrecking with no matter the day, week, month or year, Queen Bey non-chalantly dropped her self-titled fifth album in December 2013, breaking the Internet and going platinum before the new year. Pair that with her on-going “Mrs. Carter World Tour” and her #BeyGood campaign as definitive proof that she’s literally taking the world by storm.
In case you missed it, this year’s Oscars’ was one of the most watched broadcasts in years and Ellen DeGeneres was a huge reason why. The comedian hosted the 86th Annual Academy Awards and broke the ‘stuffy awards show’ stereotype by keeping everyone laughing the entire time. She even made Twitter history when she gathered members of the A-List audience for the most epic selfie of all time, which was retweeted over a million times and crashed the social network for about twenty minutes.