Top 10 Women of 2015

Everyday Sexism founder Laura Bates will tell you (quite rightly) that although we may be hauling ourselves up the mountain of gender equality, we’re going to have to struggle harder if we ever plan on reaching the summit. Thankfully, 2015 has been awash with women who have called out casual misogyny in business, sport, television and film. This listicle celebrates ten ladies who are chipping away at the glass ceiling, refusing to accept the sociocultural prejudices women are force-fed on a daily basis.

10. Serena Williams

Serena Williams is a legend. She’s 34 and has 21 Grand Slam titles already. Twenty-one. Just this year she’s won Wimbledon, the Australian Open, the French Open… feats the average tennis player would be proud to achieve in a lifetime, let alone twelve months. Her crowning glory of 2015 was when she was named Sports Illustrated’s Sportsperson of the Year, the first woman for 32 years, and the first black woman ever. In a rousing speech, the athlete spoke movingly about her difficult upbringing on the streets of Compton, an impoverished LA suburb where she was overlooked due to her race and sex. Women weren’t encouraged to play sports when she was young, says Williams, gathering future mentees under her wing with the motivational “you can achieve anything you set your mind to” and “never stop believing in yourself.” Great advice, Serena.

 

9. Marissa Mayer

Somewhere out there, Sheryl Sandberg is applauding Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer for the way she gracefully took her pregnancy in her stride. As she did with her three-year-old son, the businesswoman worked throughout the nine months prior to her children’s birth then took limited time off upon the arrival of her twin daughters. Yes, Mayer has been criticised for “failing as a role model” with her skewed perception of work-life balance. But, whatever you may think of her, she clearly respects her employees’ choices with regard to childcare, since she extended paid leave allowances for new parents as soon as she joined Yahoo.

 

8. Patricia Arquette

Throughout cinema history, filmmakers have taken to the Oscar stage to fight their causes, from Marlon Brando memorably rejecting his Academy Award due to the industry’s treatment of American Indians to Michael Moore lambasting George W. Bush in his Bowling For Columbine acceptance speech. Building on Cate Blanchett’s comments about female films last year, Patricia Arquette used her platform to speak on behalf of women in America. After the customary thank yous, the Boyhood actress championed equal rights, reminding her female audience “it’s our time to have wage equality once and for all.” Her words were greeted with whoops and cheers from the Dolby Theatre, particularly from Meryl Streep, who recently funded a Screenwriter’s’ Lab to help women over forty develop their projects.

 

 

7. Kate Bolick

To paraphrase Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, we teach girls to aspire to marriage and we don’t teach boys the same. Kate Bolick has a bone to pick with this. In her memoir-biography Spinster, the journalist ruminates on the personal and professional decisions she has made that place her outside conventional 21^st century gender politics, whilst tracing the lives of five all-but-forgotten female writers who also favoured husbandless existences. Bolick clamours for her readers to reappropriate the pejoratively connoted term ‘spinster’ – that originated as an illustrious title for honourable ladies working as thread-spinners – clarifying that marriage for love, a modern phenomenon, is not to everyone’s tastes and that women should not feel pressured into tethering themselves to the marital system. Upon release, Spinster earned a spot on the New York Times bestseller list and is undoubtedly one of the freshest and most insightful reads of 2015.

 

 

6. Adele

As we all well know, Adele owned 2015. Her comeback single Hello essentially broke all of the records. It became the first song ever to reach one million downloads in just seven days, its music video – directed by a Cannes-decorated filmmaker – was viewed 27.7 million times in its first 24 hours online and her third album 25 is now the fastest selling in history. Pretty impressive, right? Adele doesn’t only use her pipes to belt out weepy ballads, oh no. In an interview with Rolling Stone, the Oscar-winning singer opened up about her experiences as a woman in the music business, an environment where male colleagues talk down to her and condescendingly brush her aside. Apropos of nothing, she shared her feminist convictions, proudly stating “I believe that everyone should be treated the same, including race and sexuality.” You go girl.