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The past decade will go down in history as one filled with milestone moments for women: the rise of fourth wave feminism, the growth of the #MeToo movement , a second female prime minister for the UK, and women leading activism across a range of social issues, including climate change and poverty.
But growing abuse of female politicians online, the continuation of the gender pay gap, and women being disproportionately impacted by austerity all beg the question – how much have things changed for the better?
Undoubtedly one of the biggest moments came late in the decade, with allegations of sexual misconduct against producer Harvey Weinstein in 2017 sparking a worldwide discussion about women’s experiences of sexual harassment.
Weinstein denies the claims but the case still became the catalyst for the resurgence of the #MeToo movement, originally started by Tarana Burke in 2006, inspiring thousands of women to share their stories of sexual violence.
Dr Christine Blasey Ford testified against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, saying he assaulted her as a minor. But the case was dismissed and he was appointed an associate justice in 2018.
For most of the decade women have also been grappling with fourth wave feminism, which began around 2012, and is focused on intersectionality and amplifying the voices of women in other minority groups such as BAME women or those with disabilities. The democratising force of social media has undoubtedly allowed a wider cross-section of women’s voices to be heard.
Young women have also been propelled to centre stage, thanks in part also to the internet, as teenagers such as Malala Yousafzai, whose fight against the Taliban in her home of Pakistan was displayed to the world through her BBC blog. Or Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish climate activist who inspired 1.3 million school students to strike.
Show all 50 1 /50The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Dr Christine Blasey Ford, psychology professor In September 2018, psychology professor Dr Christine Blasey Ford publicly accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of having sexually assaulted her in the 1980s, when she was 15 years old. He denied the allegations, but it caused an uproar in American politics, culminating in Dr Ford and Kavanaugh both testifying before the Supreme Court. Dr Ford was widely hailed for coming forward, and in 2019 was featured in Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world list. In the Time entry, US senator Kamala Harris, said Dr Ford shone a spotlight on the ‘way we treat survivors of sexual violence’. But her testimony did not stop stop Kavanaugh being elected to the Supreme Court. On the day he was elected groups of women protested in Washington, with many dressed as characters from Margaret Atwood’s book ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’.
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The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Nancy Pelosi, politician and speaker of the US House of Representatives In September 2019, eight months after becoming the first woman to hold the position of Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Democratic politician Nancy Pelosi initiated a formal impeachment inquiry against US president Donald Trump. The inquiry was launched following reports that Trump had attempted to pressure the president of Ukraine into investigating the son of former US vice president Joe Biden. ‘The president has admitted to asking the president of Ukraine to take actions which would benefit him politically,’ Pelosi said as she announced the inquiry. ‘The actions of the Trump presidency revealed dishonorable facts of betrayal of his oath of office and betrayal of our national security and betrayal of the integrity of our elections.’ Pelosi concluded her speech with a vehement statement: ‘No one is above the law.’
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The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Serena Williams, tennis player and fashion designer Throughout her 24-year tennis career, Serena Williams’ sporting achievements have completely redefined the sport, resulting in her winning 23 Grand Slam singles tournaments and being named the world number one on eight separate occasions. In April 2017, it was revealed that Williams was 20 weeks pregnant. It was quickly calculated that she therefore won the Australian Open – without dropping a single set – while pregnant. In 2018 Williams sparked a debate about sexism on the tennis court after she called out an umpire for penalising her behaviour, including smashing her racket on the ground. Billie Jean King wrote of the event: “When a woman is emotional she’s ‘hysterical’ and she’s penalised for it,” King wrote on Twitter. “When a man does the same he’s ‘outspoken’ and there are no repercussions. Thank you, Serena Williams, for calling out this double standard.”
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The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Rose McGowan, actor and activist Rose McGowan gained prominence in the 1990s and early Noughties for her performances in films including The Doom Generation and Scream and her role in supernatural series Charmed . In October 2017, the actor was one of several women to accuse disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault. To this day, McGowan has continued to speak out against Weinstein, writing about the alleged assault in her 2018 memoir Brave and becoming one of the leading figures of the #MeToo movement. In December 2017, Time magazine named its Person of the Year the ‘Silence Breakers’, those whose voices ‘launched a movement’ against sexual harassment and assault. McGowan was one of the individuals featured, alongside Ashley Judd, Alyssa Milano, Selma Blair and many others.
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The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Teresa Shook, co-founder of the Women’s March After the election of Donald Trump as President in 2016, women across the United States organised small, grass roots marches, in a bid to speak out against much of the anti-female rhetoric used during Trump’s election campaign. Teresa Shook, a retired lawyer from Indiana was one of the women who took to Facebook to ask her female friends to join her. Shook’s march was one of several similar events circulated on the social media platform. On 21 January 2017, the day after Trump’s inauguration, women’s marches across various cities in the USA made it the largest single-day protest in the history of the nation. Multiple other women’s marches were held simultaneously around the world.
The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Gina Miller, business owner and campaigner In June 2016, Business owner Gina Miller lead a successful legal challenge against the UK government. Miller argued that MPs should be able to vote on whether or not to invoke Article 50, that would allow the UK to begin the process to leave the EU. In August 2019, Miller took on the government in court yet again when she and several others argued that Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s prorogation of Parliament had been unlawful. ‘Whilst prorogation is an acceptable UK constitutional practice, no prime minister in modern history has attempted to use it in such a brazen manner,’ Miller wrote on a fundraising website at the time. On 24 September 2019, the Supreme Court ruled that the prorogation had been unlawful.
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The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Alyssa Milano, actor and activist At 9.21pm on 15 October 2017, Charmed star Alyssa Milano shared a tweet that would relaunch one of the most impactful social movements of recent years. The actor asked her followers to respond to her tweet writing ‘me too’ if they had ever experienced sexual harassment or assault. ‘Me too. Suggested by a friend. ‘If all the women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted wrote ‘Me too.’ as a status, we might give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem,’ she stated in her tweet, which garnered more than 50,000 likes, more than 20,000 retweets and more than 60,000 responses. Milano’s tweet propelled a movement originally started by activist Tarana Burke in 2006, back into the mainstream. In December 2017, Burke explained that the movement was originally created ‘to support survivors of sexual violence, in particular black and brown girls’.
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The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Michelle Obama, lawyer, writer and former US first lady As first lady of the US from 2009 to 2017, Michelle Obama inspired countless people with her motivational work promoting women’s issues, raising awareness of poverty and encouraging members of the public to lead healthy lives. Despite many calls for her to run as president in the future, in March 2019 Obama said she is ‘not interested in politics’, adding that her goal is ‘to be able to reach as many people as possible’. ‘I think you can do that better outside of politics. But I will do everything I can to emphasise the importance of voting,’ said Obama, whose memoir Becoming became the best-selling book in the US in 2018. Since leaving the White House, Obama has opened up about her struggle to conceive and a miscarriage, before having daughters Sasha and Malia. She has also launched a project called ‘Let Girls Learn’, helping teenage girls around the world attain a quality education.
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The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Gina Martin, anti-upskirting campaigner In 2017, freelance writer Gina Martin was at a music festival when a man took a photograph up her skirt with his phone without her consent. Martin immediately took action, informing the police what had occurred. Her case was closed shortly thereafter. Martin was determined to ensure that no case of upskirting be left unpunished again. The writer shared her story on social media, started a petition to have her case reopened and campaigned for upskirting to become a criminal offence. The ‘Upskirting Bill’ received Royal Assent on 12 February 2019 and came into effect on 12 April. ‘There’s a lot of work still to do. A change in law is a huge thing, it sets a precedent but it doesn’t change people’s opinions,’ Martin said. ‘We still see ‘smaller’ sexual assaults as not such a problem but it’s a massive issue.’
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The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, US politician and congresswoman In June 2018, bartender Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez burst onto the political scene when she defeated Democratic politician Joseph Crowley to serve as Representative of New York’s 14th congressional district, in what was regarded as one of the largest upsets to occur during the midterm elections. Five months later, AOC reigned supreme yet again when she beat Republican opponent Anthony Pappas to become the youngest Congresswoman in US history, at 29 years old. The Democratic politician is considered by many to represent the ‘future’ of American politics, having described climate change as ‘the single biggest threat worldwide’, stated her desire for ICE to be abolished, promoted universal healthcare and supported the LGBT+ community.
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The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex Prior to her relationship with Prince Harry, Meghan Markle was best-known for starring in US legal drama Suits . Meghan used her platform as a celebrity to campaign for important causes, most notably in 2015 when she delivered an empowering speech about gender equality at the UN Women Conference. Meghan and Prince Harry married in May 2018 in Windsor. The duchess has taken on her role within the royal family with an evident sense of duty, speaking publicly about gender equality, mental health and supporting an initiative that provides support and training for women who are unemployed. ‘It is said that girls with dreams become women with vision. May we empower each other to carry out such vision – because it isn't enough to simply talk about equality. One must believe it,’ Meghan said during her UN speech.
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The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Greta Thunberg, environmental activist Climate campaigner Greta Thunberg has become a force to be reckoned with on the world stage, inspiring an environmental movement that has spanned the globe. The journey of the 2019 Time magazine ‘Person of the Year’ had humble beginnings. At 15-years-old Thunberg began standing outside the Swedish parliament holding a sign that read: ‘School strike for the climate.’ After images of Thunberg began circulating online, other students decided to follow suit, resulting in the conception of the Fridays for Future school climate strike campaign which saw 1.4 million children take part around the world. Millions of people have since taken part in marches calling on greater focus to be placed on the climate crisis. In September 2019, Thunberg expressed her rage at world leaders during the UN climate change summit, stating: ‘How dare you. You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words.’
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The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, author In 2014 Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie published her critically-acclaimed essay We Should All Be Feminists . The literary work, which was adapted from her 2012 TEDx talk of the same name, discussed feminism and the problems of toxic masculinity. Adichie says in the text: ‘We teach girls to shrink themselves, to make themselves smaller. We say to girls, you can have ambition, but not too much. You should aim to be successful, but not too successful. Otherwise you will threaten the man.' Adichie’s words became deeply ingrained in feminist discourse, being sampled in mainstream music such as Beyoncé’s 2013 song ‘Flawless’, and quoted on Dior t-shirts, which were widely criticised after being sold for around £500.
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The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Laura Bates, founder of the Everyday Sexism Project In 2012, writer Laura Bates founded the Everyday Sexism Project with the aim of raising awareness of the microaggressions and discriminations women face on a daily basis. ‘When I started the Everyday Sexism Project almost a decade ago, feminism still felt like a dirty word and sexism was considered a thing of the past,’ said Bates. Around the third anniversary of the website, in April 2015, Everyday Sexism had already reached 100,000 entries. The early success of the project led to Bates writing four books on the topic, including Everyday Sexism , published in 2014, and Misogynation , published in 2019. Bates was also awarded the British Empire Medal in the 2015 Birthday Honours for services to gender equality. ‘Inequality, discrimination and abuse was impacting on women's lives every single day, yet it seemed like an invisible problem. When you tried to talk about it, you were dismissed or laughed at. That feels like it has finally changed,’ Bates said in 2019.
The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Simone Biles, gymnast With four Olympic gold medals under her belt, the title of the World Championships’ most decorated gymnast and two moves named after her, Simone Biles has completely redefined her sport. Viral videos of her best routines also gained her notoriety outside of sporting fans. In January 2018, Biles publicly came forward to accuse former USA Gymnastics physician Larry Nassar of sexual assault. Bile’s testimony, along with many others, was successful in convicting Nassar, who was sentenced to prison for 175 years. At the ESPY Awards, which were held in July 2018, more than 140 survivors of Nassar’s abuse, including Biles, were honoured with the Arthur Ashe Courage Award. A month later, Biles wore a teal leotard at the USA Gymnastics National Championship to raise awareness of sexual assault. ‘[The colour] is for the survivors,’ the gymnast told AP News . ‘I stand with all of them and I think it’s kind of special to unite.’
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The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Jo Cox, Labour politician In June 2016, Labour politician Jo Cox, who served as a Member of Parliament for Batley and Spen, was murdered by right-wing extremist Thomas Mair while she was out canvassing in her constituency. Mair is currently serving a life sentence for her murder. Following Ms Cox’s death, her 2015 maiden speech in Parliament, in which she said “we are far more united and have far more in common with each other than things that divide us”, was widely cited as the narrative to combat growing divisions over the EU referendum. Ms Cox’s husband, Brendan Cox, has since spoken widely about the impact of Brexit on the UK and particularly the language used by Boris Johnson when he said the best way to honour Cox’s memory was to “get Brexit done”. Mr Cox said he “felt sick” at her name being used.
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The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Hillary Clinton, politician, writer and former US presidential candidate In 2016 Hillary Clinton became the first woman to be nominated in a presidential election. Despite winning the popular vote by nearly three million ballots, Clinton lost to Republican candidate Donald Trump. Following her loss, Clinton delivered an empowering concession speech.‘I know we have still not shattered that highest and hardest glass ceiling, but some day, someone will, and hopefully sooner than we might think right now. And to all the little girl whose are watching this, never doubt that you are valuable and powerful and deserving of every chance and opportunity in the world to pursue and achieve your own dreams,’ she said. Since the election, Clinton has focused her work on efforts on women’s rights, including writing a book with her daughter, Chelsea Clinton, called ‘Gutsy Women: favourite stories of courage and resilience’.
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The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Dr Savita Halappanavar In 2012, dentist Dr Savita Halappanavar, who lived in Ireland, was 17 weeks pregnant when she and her husband Praveen discovered she was likely to suffer a miscarriage. When they requested that she undergo an abortion, they were told it wasn’t allowed ‘under Irish law’, unless there was evidence her life was at risk. A week after first being examined in a hospital for back pain, Dr Halappanavar died from cardiac arrest caused by a septic miscarriage. Her death spurred the movement in Ireland to repeal the eighth amendment, a law that banned abortion in almost all circumstances, stating that a pregnant woman and a foetus have an ‘equal right to life’. In May 2018, Ireland voted in a national referendum to legalise abortion, with 66.4 per cent of those who took part voting ‘yes’.
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The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Malala Yousafzai, female education activist As a young girl growing up in Pakistan, Malala Yousafzai was determined to spread the message that girls deserve to receive an education, despite the Taliban banning girls from attending school. In 2012, when she was 15 years old and writing an online diary for the BBC about life under Taliban rule, Yousafzai was shot in the head by a gunman when she was on her way to school. The attempt on Yousafzai’s life sent ripples across the world. Following her recovery, the teenager continued to act as an advocate for human rights causes, co-founded non-profit organisation the Malala Fund and authored a best-selling book titled I Am Malala . When she was 17 years old, she became the youngest ever recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, which she was awarded alongside Indian activist Kailash Satyarthi. ‘If you don't raise your voice, it is unlikely anyone will hear you,’ Yousafzai said during her Nobel Peace Prize speech.
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The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Emma González, activist and gun control campaigner On 14 February 2018, 17 people were shot dead at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida when a former student opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle on the school. It was the deadliest high school shooting in US history. A group of survivors from the school founded a group called Never Again MSD, using the hashtags #NeverAgain and #EnoughIsEnough to spread the message that stricter gun control was required. Three days after the attack, Never Again MSD co-founder Emma González delivered a powerful speech at a gun control rally, in which she called on the crowd to state ‘We call BS’, with regards to the lack of action being taken to ban assault weapons in America. The speech also became famous for the long period of silence (six minutes, 20 seconds) taken by González, at the beginning of her speech, to indicate the length of time the shooter was active in the school for.
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The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Emma Watson, actor and activist Emma Watson became a household name for her role as Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter films but in the last decade she has become synonymous with her campaigning on gender inequality and work with the UN. In 2014, Watson helped to launch a UN initiative called HeForShe, a solidarity movement that aims to encourage all – specifically boys and men – to fight gender inequality. At the HeForShe launch in September 2014, Watson delivered a powerful speech about feminism, which has been viewed millions of times. She said: ‘The more I spoke about feminism, the more I realised that fighting for women’s rights has too often become synonymous with man-hating. If there is one thing I know for certain, it is that this has to stop.’
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The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Lucy-Anne Holmes, author, actor and ‘No More Page 3’ campaigner For decades, The Sun newspaper featured images of topless women on page 3. The feature was widely criticised for being outdated and objectifying women, but continued. That was until, actor and author Lucy-Anne Holmes launched an online petition in 2012, requesting then-editor, Dominic Mohan, to reconsider the feature. The petition gained traction in the months that followed, eventually leading to The Sun closing down its Page 3 feature in its Irish edition in August 2013 and in its UK edition two years later. ‘Page 3 was a controversial topic that took sexism to a new level by introducing people to topless models for decades before being eliminated,’ the No More Page 3 campaign states.
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The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Queen Elizabeth II On 9 September 2015 (at the age of 89 years and 141 days), Queen Elizabeth II became the longest-reigning British monarch and the longest-reigning female monarch in world history. Since her ascension to the throne in 1952, the 93-year-old has been the figurehead of both the British monarchy and the global Commonwealth. In 2012, the same year that London hosted the Olympic Games, the royal celebrated her Diamond Jubilee, marking her 60th anniversary as Queen. The event featured a pageant of 1,000 boats from around the Commonwealth nations down the River Thames, in addition to a four-day bank holiday weekend in honour of the occasion. Since 2016 the Queen has been the subject of Netflix’s drama The Crown , which shows a partially-fictionalised, overview of her life. In November 2019, Olivia Colman, who plays the monarch in the third series, described the Queen as the “ultimate feminist”
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The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Angela Merkel, German chancellor Having served as chancellor of Germany for the past 14 years and as leader of the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party from 2000 to 2018, Angela Merkel has been named Forbes ’ most powerful woman in the world for nine consecutive years. In 2015, Merkel was named Time magazine’s ‘Person of the Year’. The publication described the politician as ‘the de facto leader of the European Union’, praising her for the way in which she maintained open borders in Germany when many other European countries were closing their doors to the influx of refugees from Syria and other conflict zones in northern Africa. Germany reportedly took one million refugees during the 12-month period. Merkel stepped down as leader of the CDU party in December 2018, describing her tenure as an ‘honour’. She will continue serving as German chancellor until the end of the parliamentary term in 2021.
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The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Mari Copeny, activist Activist Mari Copeny, also known as ‘Little Miss Flint’, has been involved in activism work since she was eight years old, namely through her efforts to raise awareness of the water crisis in her hometown of Flint, Michigan. In 2016, a letter penned by Copeny to the then-US president Barack Obama prompted him to pay her a visit, eventually leading to a declaration of a state of emergency concerning the contamination of Flint’s water. Copeny went on to attend the Women’s March in Washington, D.C. as a youth ambassador, and in April 2017 spoke out against US president Donald Trump during a ‘Stand Up to Trump’ rally, which took place in front of the White House. ‘Anyone can change the world no matter how small you are,’ the activist said in September 2017.
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The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Amika George, period poverty campaigner In March 2017, 17-year-old Amika George read an article about the number of British girls skipping school due to their periods that made her feel ‘sickened’. George launched the #FreePeriods campaign to raise awareness of period poverty and the stigma that surrounds menstruation. In March 2019, then-chancellor of the exchequer Philip Hammond announced that the government would pay for free menstrual products to be provided in all secondary schools and colleges. ‘Periods should not be holding any girl back, and her potential as an individual should never be undermined because of them,’ George wrote for The Independent . ‘Every child deserves the education they are entitled to, unencumbered by their sex or by their families’ income.’
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The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor, journalists In October 2017, New York Times journalists Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor published an investigation that sparked global outrage and launched a fight against sexual abuse that would define an era. In their investigative article, Twohey and Kantor revealed several allegations of sexual harassment made against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein. Two months later, more than 80 women had come forward to accuse Weinstein of sexual harassment and assault. The list featured celebrities including Rose McGowan, Ashley Judd, Asia Argento, Mira Sorvino, Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie, Cara Delevingne, Kate Beckinsale, Lena Headey, Lupita Nyong’o and Salma Hayek. "I think this country is having – well, it goes beyond the United States at this point – is having a real reckoning," Twohey told CBS News in December 2017.
The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Julia Gillard, former prime minister of Australia From 2010 to 2013, Australian politician Julia Gillard became Australia’s first ever female prime minister. She was leader of the Australian Labour Party, and had previously served as a deputy prime minister from 2007 to 2010. In 2012, Gillard delivered an unforgettable speech in parliament, which became known as ‘The Misogyny Speech’. The politician spoke about alleged incidents of sexism she had experienced during her time in office, directly addressing the leader of the opposition Tony Abbott as she uttered the words: ‘If he wants to know what misogyny looks like in modern Australia, he doesn’t need a motion in the House of Representatives, he needs a mirror’. Gillard’s speech accumulated more than three million views on Australia’s ABC News YouTube channel and prompted Australia’s Macquarie Dictionary to alter its definition for the word ‘misogyny’. She also oversaw the Australian senate reaching a 50/50 split between men and women, for the first time in its history.
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The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Caroline Criado-Perez, activist and journalist Activist and journalist Caroline Criado-Perez has worked tirelessly over the years to raise the profile of important social campaigns, being named the Liberty Human Rights Campaigner of the Year in 2013. That same year, it was announced that Winston Churchill would replace Elizabeth Fry on the £5 note, a decision that would leave the Queen the only woman on a British bank note. Following a petition launched by Criado-Perez that gained 35,000 signatures, the Bank of England later announced that Jane Austen would replace Churchill on the £10 note. Criado-Perez also led a successful campaign to have a statue of a woman erected in Parliament Square, with the depiction of suffragist Millicent Fawcett unveiled in April 2018.
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The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Phoebe Waller-Bridge, writer, producer and actor Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s career started in 2009 with her acting debut at the Soho Theatre in London, followed by a handful of brief sitcom appearances. But by the end of the decade she has become a household name following the success of her one-woman-show Fleabag , taken from the Edinburgh fringe festival to a multi-series comedy on BBC Three. Further success followed with Killing Eve , a drama written by Waller-Bridge, starring actors Jodie Comer and Sandra Oh. For her work on the script, Waller-Bridge won Emmy Awards for best leading comedy actress, best comedy series and best comedy writing. In April 2019, it was announced that the actor, producer and writer had been brought on board to help with the script of the upcoming 25th James Bond film. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter , Waller-Bridge said it had been a ‘joy’ to work on the project.
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The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Caitlin Moran, author, journalist and broadcaster In the last decade journalist and author Caitlin Moran has been instrumental in the so-called rising of the fourth wave of feminism, following the third wave in the early 1990s. The publication of Moran’s 2011 feminist book How To Be A Woman and her 2014 semi-autobiographical novel How To Build A Girl were both part of the wider movement which saw the internet, and particularly social media, being used as vehicles for organisation and raising awareness of women’s issues. In her 2016 book Moranifesto , Moran features a moving letter addressed to the teenage girls who attend her book signings. ‘You were not born scared and self-loathing and overwhelmed. Things have been done – which means things can be undone,’ she writes. ‘It is hard work. But you are not scared of hard work, compared with everything else you have dealt with. Because what you must do right now, and for the rest of your life, is learn how to build a girl. You.’
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The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Rihanna, singer, fashion designer and businesswoman As a singer, Rihanna has rocked the world with hits including ‘Pon de Replay’, ‘Umbrella’ and ‘Rude Boy’. As a fashion designer and business owner, the 31-year-old has broken down barriers, championed inclusivity and achieved phenomenal levels of success. In May 2019, the Barbadian musician became the first woman, and first woman of colour, to launch a fashion brand under luxury fashion group LVMH, when she introduced her eponymous fashion brand Fenty. Her cosmetics brand, Fenty Beauty, was named one of Time magazine’s best inventions in 2017, and her lingerie brand, Savage X Fenty, has received universal praise for its representation of different body shapes and sizes. ‘I wanted every woman on the stage with different energies, different races, body types, different stages in their womanhood, culture,’ Rihanna told Elle magazine of her September 2018 Savage X Fenty NYFW show.
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The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Beyoncé, singer, songwriter, actor and businesswoman Beyoncé has been rightfully perceived as pop royalty since the Noughties, both as a member of Destiny’s Child and as a solo artist, throughout the past decade, her star has risen even higher than anyone could have anticipated. In addition to being an 20-time Grammy Award winner, changing the music game with the release of her visual album Lemonade and performing at the Super Bowl Halftime Show twice, in 2017 Beyoncé made history at Coachella, becoming the first black woman to headline the music festival. Her choice to sample Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s ‘How To Be A Feminist’ on her song, ‘Flawless’, was praised for introducing feminist literature to the mainstream and making it accessible to younger fans. She has also been open about motherhood and balancing her career with her family responsibilities. She also admitted to having miscarriages before the birth of her daughter Blue Ivy in 2012.
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The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Yalitza Aparicio, actor Yalitza Aparicio made her film debut in Alfonso Cuarón’s 2018 film Roma , in which she portrayed an indigenous maid working in Mexico City. Aparicio became the first Indigenous American woman and the second Mexican woman to be nominated for Best Actress at the Academy Awards for her performance, where she lost to The Favourite ’s Olivia Colman. In April 2019, she was named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world. Cuarón wrote a heartfelt dedication to Aparicio for the publication, stating that she is ‘incredibly grounded in truth and not easily swept away by the glitz and glamour of Hollywood’. ‘She focuses on being a force of change and empowerment for indigenous women, embracing the symbolic value of what she has done and carrying that responsibility with dignity and grace,’ the director said.
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The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Megan Rapinoe, footballer American footballer Megan Rapinoe emerged on the world stage following the Fifa Women's World Cup in 2019, winning gold in the final against the Netherlands with her teammates. She has received several awards in recognition of her talent, including being named the 2019 Best Fifa Women’s Player and the winner of the revered Ballon d’Or Féminin prize. ‘As I’ve grown older I’ve really got to understand how powerful one voice can be, my voice can be, or the team’s voice can be. So to hold that back or not to use that just seems selfish in a way,’ she told the Guardian in January 2019. Rapinoe has also been leading her team in filing a lawsuit against the US Soccer organisation, seeking equal pay with their male counterparts.
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The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Laverne Cox, actor and LGBT+ advocate Laverne Cox became a household name in the entertainment industry in 2013, when she first emerged on the scene in hit Netflix prison television series Orange Is The New Black . She became the first openly transgender person to be nominated for an acting Emmy Award and the first openly transgender person to appear on the cover of Time magazine. Cox has continually used her growing platform to advocate for important societal issues, predominantly in support of the LGBT+ community. In 2014, the actor spoke about her identity as a trans woman in an interview conducted with Dame . ‘My womanhood is something that I’ve had to claim,’ she said. ‘I think transwomen, and transpeople in general, show everyone that you can define what it means to be a man or woman on your own terms.’
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The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Christina Koch and Jessica Meir, astronauts In October 2019, Christina Koch and Jessica Meir inspired a generation of young girls to look up to the stars and dream when they took part in history’s first ever all-female spacewalk. The fact that the first all-female spacewalk had been due to take place seven months prior but was delayed because NASA had only one suitably-sized space suit (the rest were all too big, having been designed to fit men), made their accomplishment even more sweet. The spacewalk was the fourth conducted by Ms Koch, and the first for Ms Meir, who became the 15th woman to venture out of the International Space Station and into the vacuum. ‘[It was] something that allowed us to be our best, to bring our best to that day and to recognise that we have a gift and an opportunity to potentially inspire the future,’ Ms Koch said following the spacewalk.
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The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Phoebe Philo, fashion designer Phoebe Philo began her career as a design assistant to Stella McCartney at Chloé, and later became the French luxury fashion house’s creative director from 2001 to 2006, before taking on the same role at French fashion label Céline for a decade from 2008. She was named British Designer of the Year twice by the British Fashion Council. McCartney penned a tribute to Philo in 2014, when the latter was named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people of the year. ‘She celebrates the simple and champions the quality and reality of a woman’s wardrobe,’ McCartney wrote. Philo’s aesthetic at Celine also became synonymous with the rise of the normcore trend and contemporary elegance. In a 2014 interview Philo said she was not a “fan” of women being “sexualised through clothes” and instead promoted women feeling comfortable, powerful and strong.
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The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Katie Bouman, computer scientist Katie Bouman, a 29-year-old computer scientist earned plaudits worldwide for helping develop the algorithm that created the first-ever image of a black hole in April 2019. The remarkable photo, showing a halo of dust and gas 500 million trillion km from Earth, was only possible because of the algorithm created by Bouman when she was a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Sinéad Burke, writer, broadcaster and activist When she was 16 years old, Irish writer, activist and broadcaster Sinéad Burke decided to call out the fashion industry in a blog, pointing out how excluded she felt as someone with achondroplasia, a condition that affects bone development, predominantly in the arms and legs. Burke has gone on to inspire countless individuals, co-founding the Inclusive Fashion and Design Collective (IFDC), becoming an ambassador for the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children and being appointed a Council of State in Ireland in April 2019.
The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Munroe Bergdorf, model and activist Munroe Bergdorf has become one of the most prominent British LGBT+ activists in recent years, having accumulated more than 60,000 followers on Twitter and 170,000 followers on Instagram. In August 2017, it was announced she had been hired to appear in a L’Oreal campaign, the first transgender model to do so. However, she was dropped from the campaign shortly afterwards due to comments she made on social media about racism that the brand said was ‘at odds’ with their values. Following the incident, beauty brand Illamasqua employed Bergdorf to be the face of a beauty campaign, saying that she embodies ‘diversity and individuality’ and is ‘not scared to be truly herself’. ‘Be that person to help someone else fly when their wings feel heavy,’ she said while receiving an honorary doctorate from the University of Brighton in July 2019.
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The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Gwyneth Paltrow, actor and Goop CEO In October 2017, Gwyneth Paltrow came forward to allege that Harvey Weinstein had sexually harassed her. In September 2019, following the publication of She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement by Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor, it emerged that Paltrow had been a key figure in the initial investigation into Weinstein’s alleged misconduct, being ‘one of the first’ people to pass information to The New York Times journalists. ‘She [Paltrow] did play a much more active role than anybody’s ever known. But it was hair-raising for her, because Harvey Weinstein had been such an important influence,’ Kantor told ABC’s Today show. Twohey added that ‘people will be surprised’ to discover that Paltrow was one of the first accusers to call them ‘and that she was determined to help this investigation’.
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The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Tanni Grey-Thompson, paralympian and gold medal winner Paralympian Tanni Grey Thompson, who was born with spina bifida and is a wheelchair user, won 11 gold medals and held over 30 world records during her sporting career. After she retired from the sporting world in February 2007, she moved into charity work and TV presenting. In March 2010 she was made a life peer and was introduced in the House of Lords on 29 March the same year. In February 2013 she was assessed as one of the 100 most powerful women in the United Kingdom by Woman’s Hour on BBC Radio 4. In 2019 Grey Thompson supported Clare Balding when she criticised a BBC 2 list of 20th century icons, which didn’t feature a single woman on the shortlist. In a blog post, she said: “This is where feminism comes in - not to tear down men, but to raise up the stories of women doing incredible things’. In November she also spoke about the discrimination she faced from doctors and members of the public when announcing her pregnancy.
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The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Reni Eddo-Lodge, journalist and author British journalist and author Reni Eddo-Lodge primarily focuses on feminism and exposing structural racism in her writing. In April 2014, Eddo-Lodge was a judge in the BBC Woman’s Hour Power list, for her discussions around intersectionality in fourth-wave feminism. In 2017, Eddo-Lodge completed her debut book, Why I’m No Longer Talking To White People About Race , which won the Jhalak Prize in March 2018 and was widely praised by critics. In January 2018, Eddo-Lodge was chosen as one of seven prominent women to be photographed for British Vogue , to mark the centenary of British women being given the vote.
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The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon, leader of the Scottish National Party, has served as the First Minister of Scotland since November 2014. She is the first woman to hold the position, and the first to lead her party. Sturgeon has been an instrumental figure in leading the bid for Scottish Independence in the referendum and has campaigned widely on women’s rights and gender equality, describing herself as a feminist, saying feminism is “not a choice, it is common sense”. She hailed Scottish feminist economist, Alisa McKay, as one of her inspirations. Forbes magazine ranked Sturgeon as the 50th most powerful woman in the world in 2016 and 2nd in the United Kingdom. In 2015, BBC Radio 4’s Woman's Hour deemed Sturgeon to be the most powerful and influential woman in the United Kingdom. In 2016 Sturgeon was praised for sharing that she had miscarried five years previously.
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The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Stella Creasy, MP for Walthamstow Stella Creasy is a British Labour politician and MP for the London constituency of Walthamstow since the 2010 general election, having been elected from an all-female shortlist in the seat. Creasy has been outspoken on issues including the, successful, No More Page 3 campaign, to stop The Sun newspaper from publishing pictures of topless models. She also supports the decriminilisation of the sex industry, and argues misogyny shoud be made a hate crime. Creasy organised an amendment to the 2017 Queen’s Speech, calling for the government to allocate funding for women forced to travel from Northern Ireland to England to have an abortion, which gained cross-party support. Later she was a vocal supporter of making abortion laws equal across the whole of the UK. Creasy, who has appeared in the House of Commons with her baby, said: “Feminism isn’t about women, it’s about power,” in a speech in 2018.
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The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Margaret Atwood, author The work of Canadian author Margaret Atwood, 80, was introduced to a new generation of women in the 2010s, as her 1985 patriarchy-smashing book The Handmaid’s Tale , about a dystopian society in which fertile women are made slaves for infertile couples, was serialised for Channel 4. The show, starring Elizabeth Moss, won 30 awards, including Emmy for best drama. In 2018, Atwood faced a backlash on social media after voicing concerns over the #MeToo movement and calling for due process in the case of a former university professor accused of sexual misconduct. In 2019 Atwood launched the sequel book, The Testaments to critical acclaim, winning her the Booker Prize in 2019, alongside author Bernardine Evaristo, for her book Girl, Woman, Other .
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The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Chanel Miller, sexual assault campaigner Chanel Miller was first known in the public consciousness as Emily Doe, after anonymously coming forward to share that she was sexually assaulted on the campus of Stanford University in 2015. The victim impact statement she wrote and read at the perpetrator’s hearing, went viral after being published online, being read by over 11 million people worldwide. In September 2019 Miller relinquished her anonymity and published the now best-selling memoir Know My Name . She is credited with sparking national discussion in the United States about the treatment of assault cases and victims by college campuses. In 2016, before her name was published, Glamour named Miller as woman of the year and in 2019 she was listed as one of the 100 most influential people of the year.
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The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 adia Murad, human right's activist Nadia Murad is an Iraqi Yazidi human rights activist, who lives in Germany as a refugee, after being kidnapped from her hometown by the Islamic State for three months in 2014. Six of Murad’s brothers and step-brothers were killed during the kidnap. Since leaving Iraq Murad has campaigned extensively to help communities damaged by the fighting, particularly women and children who are being trafficked by the insurgents. She was jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018 for her work, making her the first Iraqi and Yazidi to have done so. In 2019 Murad’s campaign was thrown into the spotlight after a video of her meeting Donald Trump in the Oval Office went viral. In the video, the President is seen asking Murad what happened to her, where she has to repeat that her family are dead after he asks “where are they [your family] now?,” and pleads with him to help. He also asks why they gave her the Nobel Peace Prize.
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The Independent's Women of the Decade, 2010-2019 Sally Rooney, author Sally Rooney is an Irish author. The 27-year-old’s debut novel, Conversations with Friends , was published in 2017. Followed by Normal People in 2018, both of which won critical acclaim. In July 2018, Normal People was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize. In November 2018 the book won ‘Irish Novel Of The Year’ at the Irish Book Awards, and in January 2019 it was long-listed for the Dylan Thomas Prize and the 2019 Women’s Prize for Fiction. Rooney has been described by critics as the “voice of a generation”, including in a widely-circulated think piece that credited Rooney as part of the “making of a millennial woman”. Rooney has been outspoken about her views on feminism. In an interview with Esquire , she said: “She could write a feminist fantasy novel where gender dynamics don’t exist but in the real world, women are abused by men.”
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To celebrate International Women's Day, The Independent has compiled a list of women who made a significant impact in their field over the last decade. Some have courted controversy in the past, while others have emerged from under the radar to become household names.
From the astronauts who participated in the first ever all-female spacewalk to young activists making a difference, click through the gallery above.
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