Throughout this year, there have been many women in the public eye who have moved us with their bravery, honesty, courage and creativity. These women have inspired us enormously throughout 2016. Here’s why their work is so powerful.
1. Jo Cox
Jo Cox, the Labour party politician and MP for Batley and Spen was murdered in June, 2016, shortly before the EU referendum vote. She had campaigned to keep the UK in Europe, and her killer opposed this work and her beliefs. Before entering politics Jo worked for Oxfam and helped to launch the Freedom Fund, an organisation dedicated to fighting modern slavery. Jo leaves a legacy that inspires us all to fight for democracy, to ensure that vulnerable voices are heard and that, to quote her final parliamentary speech, 'We are far more united and have far more in common with each other than that which divides us.' To find out how to support her legacy, visit The Freedom Fund or search the Twitter hashtag #moreincommon.
2. Baddiewinkle
The break out Instagram star of 2016 was born before even the basic desktop computer was invented. 88 year old Helen Ruth Elam Van Winkle, AKA Baddiewinkle, has 2.6 million followers and one of the best bios ever used on social media, ‘Stealing your man since 1928’. This year she starred in a Missguided campaign and she’s just been signed up by Urban Decay. If you’ve ever worried about whether you’ll ever be too old to dress up and have fun, Baddiewinkle is putting two fabulous fingers up at the idea that age is anything but a number.
3. Warsan Shire
The Somali-British poet had a big year in 2016 when Beyonce featured her poems, including ‘the unbearable weight of staying - (the end of the relationship)’ in her album Lemonade. Warsan was made London’s first Young Poet Laureate in 2013, the same year as winning the Brunel University African Poetry prize. She was profiled by the New Yorker last year. Her work has been widely acclaimed for some time, but now that she holds the second production credit on Lemonade, she has a deserved global platform, and there are rumours that she’s writing a book that will be out some time next year.
4. Sophie Walker
Very few elections seemed to end well in 2016, but supporters of the Women’s Equality Party were delighted when party leader Sophie Walker ran for Mayor Of London came second (beating George Galloway). Sophie scored over 350,000 votes, with one in every 20 voters picking her as their first or second choice. Sophie is a dedicated campaigner for equality, pushing for everything from more girls and women in STEM to better childcare provisions.
5. Amy Schumer
Amy Schumer’s meteoric rise continued in 2016 with the publication of her best selling memoir, The Girl With The Lower Back Tattoo. She’s famous for being unabashedly honest and open, but her book went beyond the content covered by her stand up to discuss, in stark and emotional detail, everything from her experiences in an abusive relationship to struggling with her parents’ separation and their health issues. Towards the end of the year we heard that she was about to star in a live action movie about Barbie - and she stylishly shot down the internet trolls who used the news as an excuse to body shame her.
6. Michelle Obama
For most of us, there will only ever be one true FLOTUS. Michelle Obama has been inspiring us for nearly eight years. She has two Ivy League degrees, she’s improved health for families with low incomes, and she launched Let Girls Learn, which improves education for women and girls globally. This year, when she spoke at the Democratic National Convention, and went viral with the message ‘When they go low, we go high’, explicitly challenging the sexism coming from Trump and his supporters. Michelle’s speeches are so powerful, eloquent and intelligent that the whole world stops to listen - if more of us start speaking out in 2017, it’s because we’re inspired by her words.
7. Nicola Adams
British boxer Nicola Adams successfully defended her title in Rio this summer, after being the first British woman to win an Olympic gold medal in boxing - as well as being the first LGBT person to win an Olympic boxing gold. Women’s boxing had been absent from the Olympics, so as well as winning medals for Team GB, Nicola’s work raises the profile of women in the sport, and inspires more to take part. She was nominated for Sports Personality Of The Year.
8. Meghan Markle
This year, Meghan dominated the front pages of every tabloid, but the actress was quick to call out anyone who cared more about her boyfriend than her work and achievements. She wrote this powerful personal essay for Elle about identity, and what it’s like to deal with racism as a biracial woman. She’s a fascinating, inspiring woman, and her future princess potential is probably the least interesting thing about her.
9. Amber Heard
After her marriage to Johnny Depp ended, amid allegations of domestic violence, Amber was awarded a settlement of $7 million - and she arranged for the full settlement to be split between two charities, the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles and the American Civil Liberties Union (which supports victims of domestic violence.) She also wrote a powerful open letter for Porter magazine, offering her support for women who experienced domestic abuse, as well as appearing in a PSA video about the subject. She turned a harrowing personal experience into an opportunity to put a spotlight onto an issue that affects millions of women, displaying strength and courage.
10. June Eric Udorie
Writer and feminist campaigner June has pushed to put feminism on the National Curriculum, written about everything and everyone from FGM to child marriage to Rihanna, and is the youngest of four editorial interns to be selected for the first ever Penguin Random House training scheme. Most excitingly, June has just announced that she is editing an anthology of intersectional feminist writing, which will be published by Virago. This would be an impressive list of achievements for anyone - but June is just 18, and launched her freelance writing career while studying for her GCSEs. What have we learned from June? If you’ve got something important to say, don’t worry that age or a lack of experience might hold you back - and don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today!
11. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The novelist has been awarded a MacArthur genius grant, gave a TED talk that was sampled by Beyonce, has written several books including We Should All Be Feminists and stars in a Boots No 7 campaign - and this year, she had a baby and made a serious feminist statement at the same time.’I have some friends who probably don’t know I was pregnant or that I had a baby. I just feel like we live in an age when women are supposed to perform pregnancy. We don’t expect fathers to perform fatherhood, she explained to the Financial Times.’ She reminds us all that we can be as public or private as we choose - we don’t owe anyone any information.
12. Leslie Jones
Leslie won 2016, alongside the rest of her Ghostbusters squad, when she put on her greige jumpsuit and kicked haunted ass on our cinema screens. She won it again when she spoke out against the Twitter trolls bombarding her with horrific, sexist and racist abuse, and Twitter responded by shutting down the account of one of Twitter’s biggest bullies. Then she posted some of the best tweets about the Rio Olympics - so NBC flew her out to support Team USA. We love Leslie, and while no-one should ever have to deal with the sort of abuse she received, her grace, wit and talent is an inspiration to us all.
13. Marjorie Enya
There were many proposals at Rio 2016, and some were more welcome than others, but one of the first and best was Marjorie Enya’s - the Olympic volunteer proposed to her girlfriend, Isadora Cerullo, who played for Brazil’s women’s rugby team. Marjorie said ‘I wanted to show people that love wins,’ referencing the fact that some of the countries represented at the Olympics have yet to legalise gay marriage. By making LGBTQ rights a major part of the conversation at a global event, Marjorie has shown us all that when you want to make a point, it’s worth going big.
14. Hari Nef
Model and actress Hari, a star of the Amazon drama Transparent, has just been nominated for two prestigious industry awards from model.com - in the Breakout Star category, and for Social Media Star Of The Year. Hari is a trans activist and uses her public platform to discuss gender issues and address the importance of trans acceptance. She shows us that if you’ve got a chance to speak out about something that’s close to your heart, you have to take it.
15. Phoebe Waller Bridge
This summer it was pretty much impossible to have a conversation with anyone without one of you grabbing the other by the shoulders and yelling ‘HAVE YOU SEEN FLEABAG?’ Phoebe wrote and starred in the dark BBC3 sitcom (which began life as a one woman play) which deftly discusses everything from death to dysfunctional families to upskirt sexing. She reminds us of just how powerful comedy can be, and shows that seeing the weirdness in everything ultimately makes us more creative.
16. Bryony Gordon
Bryony’s second memoir, Mad Girl, was published this year - it’s a funny, moving, shockingly honest and hugely relatable account of what it’s like to struggle with mental health issues, and Bryony writes candidly about her own OCD. Bryony also founded Mental Health Mates, an organisation which reaches out to people who are struggling by bringing them together for a monthly walk. She shows us that we all become stronger when we stop pretending to be perfect, and speaking out about is scary but brings comfort and support to a lot of people.
17. Eva Chen
Eva is famous for having over 651,000 loyal Instagram fans (and one of the finest shoe collections in the world) but she’s a savvy business woman too, occupying the most powerful spaces in the fashion industry. After editing US magazine Lucky, she was made Instagram’s head of Fashion Partnerships, and this year she became part of the Board Of Directors at Yoox Net A Porter. Eva reminds us all that there’s nothing fluffy about fashion, and that being a style queen and having a brilliant business brain are not mutually exclusive.
18. Leshia Evans
Leshia was part of one of the most powerful images of 2016. In July, she was photographed at the Black Lives Matter protest in Baton Rouge, calmly confronting a line of heavily armed police. She was arrested and held in jail overnight, before being released without charge. Leshia’s bravery and courage was remarkable. Her powerful stance brought the Black Lives Matter movement to global news channels, and showed people around the world that we all have a responsibility to take a stand against racism.
19. Simone Biles
American artistic gymnast Simone is the Olympic individual all round, vault and floor gold medalist, and has been described as the greatest female gymnast of all time. When compared to other medal winning athletes, she explains, simply ‘I’m not the next Usain Bolt or Michael Phelps. I’m the first Simone Biles.’She was raised by her grandparents who formally adopted her as her birth mother suffered from drug and alcohol addiction, and she is the spokesperson for non profit organisation Mattress Firm Foster Kids, which supports children in the US foster system. She’s also spoken out the importance of body image and body confidence in her memoir Courage To Soar.
20. Gina Miller
Gina Miller made headlines when she successfully mounted a legal challenge against the Prime Minister, arguing that individual members of the Cabinet don’t have the legal power to trigger Article 50, and leave the EU, without the prior authorisation of MPs and Parliament. Gina has received some horrific threats, but continues to speak out for her cause, explaining the case is ‘about process, not politics’ and ensuring that the future of the UK is debated properly in Parliament.
21. Hillary Clinton
This year, Hillary Clinton became the first woman in history to run as the Democratic candidate. She won the popular vote by a margin of almost 2.9 million, and more Americans voted for her than any other losing candidate in US presidential history. Hillary is expected to continue to work in politics, and focusing on women’s issues - as she once said at the UN Assembly, ‘women’s rights are human rights.’
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.