International Women's Day 2024 is here and if you've ever felt like you need a running list of exceptional feminist icons to lift you up, you've come to the right place.
We've profiled 35 modern-day feminists who inspire us on the daily with their deeds, words and legacies. From groundbreaking legends who have long been battling to secure basic freedoms, to rising stars who are introducing a brand new generation to the movement, these leaders are paving the way forward for women and girls around the world.
1. Michaela Coel
Michaela made a name for herself with the critically-acclaimed BBC Three series, Chewing Gum, as well as starring in Black Mirror and Top Boy. In 2020, she released the best TV show of that year: I May Destroy You, which – loosely based on Michaela's own experiences – followed a young woman who dealt with the aftermath of being raped.
As if winning four BAFTAs wasn't enough, Michaela rejected a $1 million deal with Netflix that would see her lose the copyright of her work, telling BBC Radio 4's Women's Hour: “At that stage it's hard to say to people: 'Trust your gut and follow your instinct,' because it's not a very useful sentence all the time, but that is what I did in that situation and I'm very glad I did.”
2. Zarah Sultana
At a time when distrust of politicians is rife, Zarah Sultana – the MP for Coventry South – has repeatedly used her platform to speak out against Islamophobia, violence against women, and food scarcity.
3. Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex
In 2020, Meghan Markle and her husband, Prince Harry, stepped back from royal duties after claiming to endure racism from the Royal family and the British press. In doing so, she showed the world (young girls and women in particular) a different version of the happy-ever-after we've come to expect for princesses.
4. Vanessa Nakate
The Ugandan climate activist spent several months as a lone protestor outside the Parliament of Uganda, after becoming concerned about the high temperatures in the country. Speaking alongside Greta Thunberg at a Youth4Climate event in Milan in 2021, Vanessa pointed out, “Africa is the lowest emitter of CO2 emissions of all continents – except for Antarctica,” adding, “Many Africans are losing their lives, while countless more have lost their livelihoods.”
In an interview with Angelina Jolie for Time Magazine, Vanessa called out the whitewashing and white saviourism within the climate justice movement, saying, “every climate activist should be advocating for racial justice because if your climate justice does not involve the most affected communities, then it is not justice at all.”
5. Gloria Steinem
A long-time advocate and activist for women’s rights, Gloria Steinem has been speaking up against sexism and misogyny for decades. She was the face of the US women’s movement in the 1970s in campaigning for abortion rights – and since the overturning of Roe vs Wade in 2022, has continued to speak up on the importance of reproductive freedoms.
Gloria is widely seen as a feminist icon all over the world, and once aptly said: “The story of women's struggle for equality belongs to no single feminist nor to any one organisation but to the collective efforts of all who care about human rights.”
6. Mindy Kaling
Mindy Kaling has long been an advocate for women's rights and South Asian representation within the entertainment industry. Her comedy-drama TV series, Never Have I Ever, which tells the coming-of-age story of a first-generation Indian-American teenage girl, has been praised for its depiction of teenage life through Mindy's own perspective. In an interview with The New York Times, she said, “For all of us in the writers’ room, particularly those of us who were the children of immigrants, which comprised most of my staff, it was about sharing those stories of feeling ‘other'.”
7. Evan Rachel Wood
In 2020, Rape Crisis UK estimated that 51,367 victims and survivors of rape who reported what happened never saw anyone charged for what they did. It's no wonder that many victims of sexual assault and rape choose not to speak out. However, Evan Rachel Wood is one of the women challenging this narrative, after she opened up in a powerful statement about allegedly being raped and abused by her ex-partner Marilyn Manson, saying, "I stand with the many victims who will no longer be silent.”
Marilyn Manson has denied the charges.
8. Dawn Butler
As the MP for Brent Central, Dawn Butler has campaigned on a variety of issues, from reforming the police to raising awareness of testing for HIV. She also served as Labour’s Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities between 2017-2020 and was previously the first elected Black female government minister in the UK.
9. Lana Condor
In To All The Boys I've Loved Before, Lana Condor was one of the first Asian-American women to play a lead role in a young adult rom-com. Since then, she's used her platform to speak about the importance of Asian-American representation, telling Bust, “The amount of young Asian American women and moms who have come up to me and said they feel seen and they’re so proud to be represented has been overwhelmingly moving.”
10. Munroe Bergdorf
Consistently at the forefront of British activism, Munroe Bergdorf is a British model who has also fronted beauty campaigns based around gender fluidity. She is a strong and outspoken feminist, unafraid to call our injustices or hypocrisies where she sees them or to stand up for what she believes in.
11. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has become something of a feminist icon in US politics, using her position (she was elected to Congress in January 2019) to challenge the status quo, seek out corruption and, yes, to champion women and minorities. She wore Suffragette white to Trump’s state of the union address and brought feminist activist Ana Maria Archilla as her date, both of them wearing badges which read: ‘Well behaved women seldom make history."
12. Angela Davis
Long before Dior told us ‘We Should All Be Feminists,’ the original feminist tee was ‘Free Angela’ – part of a mass cultural movement to free political activist and university lecturer Angela Davis from her wrongful imprisonment in the early 1970s. Since then, she has been a rallying figure for both the civil rights and feminist movements, unafraid to challenge everyone from the FBI to the US president. She remains famous for her tireless activism which continues to this day.
13. Phoebe Waller-Bridge
The Killing Eve and Fleabag writer has dished up some of the best women we’ve seen on TV for a long time: murderous, unlikeable, vulnerable, strong, brittle and brilliant. Her avowedly feminist stance comes through in all her work, analysing what it means to be a feminist, looking at issues from porn and body image to the messy and beautiful intricacies of female friendship. Long may her dominance over our screens continue.
14. Roxane Gay
One of feminism’s best and brightest voices today, Roxane is a frequent contributor to the New York Times and the author of several books, including the essay collection Bad Feminist and her powerful memoir on body-image: Hunger. She is outspoken in her activism and her work delves into feminist and racial issues in a way that has made her a timely champion of both women’s rights and body positivity.
15. Laverne Cox
Laverne Cox has a lot of firsts: she was the first openly-transgender person to be nominated for an Emmy in the acting category, and the first to win a Daytime Emmy. Besides her fab acting skills, of course, she is a leading figure in the transgender community and is frequently on the frontlines, fighting for LGBTQIA+ issues and gender equality.
16. Emma Raducanu
In 2021, Emma Raducanu burst onto our TV screens by becoming the youngest British woman to make it to Wimbledon's Round of 16. She then blew us all away by winning (yes, winning) the US Open and BBC Sports Personality of the Year – the first woman to win the award in 15 years. Her heroics earned her an invite to the 2021 Met Gala, where she dazzled in head-to-toe Chanel. Did we mention she's only 21 years-old?
17. Malala Yousafzai
Brave is a word often attributed to activists, but nowhere does this seem more appropriate than when discussing Malala, who quite literally nearly died for her cause. Shot by the Taliban in 2012 on her way home from school, Malala became an international sensation for having courageously maintained her fight for female education, frequently banned by the Taliban, in her native Pakistan, despite such real threats. Post recovery, she continues her fight to this day, founding the Malala fund, which supports female education around the world.
18. Tarana Burke
A lifelong activist and grassroots community organiser, Tarana Burke finally got the recognition she deserved when her #MeToo movement went stratospherically viral in the wake of the Weinstein scandal. She was named one of Time magazine’s people of the year in 2017 and the world woke up to her tireless feminist organising and support of victims of sexual assault. She is currently Senior Director at Girls for Gender Equality.
19. Lena Waithe
One of Hollywood’s brightest young pioneers, Lena became the first African American to win an Emmy award for writing; for the Netflix show Master of None. She is responsible for creating and producing some of the most exciting and diverse shows and films out now, from Dear White People to The Chi. She is a gay rights activist and champions representation in the media, saying her work on screen is important: “I don’t know if we’ve seen a…snapback-hat-wearing lesbian on TV before.”
20. Serena Williams
Serena Williams is the greatest female tennis player of our generation and she is also one of the most proudly feminist. Powerful and unashamed of calling out sexism whenever she sees it, she is as open about motherhood as she is about grand slams. In 2018, she famously spoke up about racism in the health industry, which could've had life-threatening consequences after her concerns about having pulmonary embolism were dismissed having just given birth to her daughter, Alexis Olympia.
21. Sofia Jirau
Sofia Jirau made history in 2022 by being the first Victoria's Secret lingerie model with Down Syndrome. She shared the incredible news on Instagram, writing, "One day I dreamed of it, I worked on it and today it is a dream come true. I can finally tell you my big secret. I am the first Victoria’s Secret model with Down syndrome!”
22. Alice Wong
Alice Wong is an author and disability activist who founded the Disability Visibility Project, which is “dedicated to creating, sharing, and amplifying disability media and culture.” In the past decade, she's served on the US's National Council on Disability, which advises the President and Congress on issues that affect people with disabilities. She's also edited an anthology of essays by disabled people, Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century.
23. Zendaya
Zendaya's work ethic is truly something else. In the past year alone, she's starred in Dune, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Malcolm & Marie, and Euphoria. She's also been a shining example of modern day feminism, telling Seventeen, ""[Feminism should encompass] women that look like you, women who don't look like you, women whose experiences are different than you. That means black women, that means trans women, that means all women."
She added, “If I ever do become a film-maker, I know that the leads of my films will always be black women.”
24. Hunter Schafer
Undoubtedly one of the breakout stars of HBO's Euphoria, Hunter Schafer has spoken out about the roles for transgender women in Hollywood, telling British Vogue, “There are so many talented trans women out there who have worlds inside themselves that deserve to be part of the filmmaking world, and we’re very capable of playing any acting role.”
25. Rose Matafeo
Rose Matafeo plays the lead role in Starstruck, a TV show about an ordinary (but very funny woman) who ends up in a relationship with a famous actor.
In her interview with GLAMOUR, Rose discussed the limited roles available to women, saying, “There's something powerful about seeing women on screen having the good lines […] I do think it’s a weirdly threatening thing – when women are funnier than men. For instance, I find most women funnier than men, but I don't think most men do. And I love being able to bring a character to life who is not ashamed to be funny.”
26. Keke Palmer
Keke Palmer has long been a dedicated advocate for racial justice and women's empowerment. She used her opening monologue at the VMAs in 2020 to challenge police brutality in the US, saying, “Enough is enough. What we just witnessed in Kenosha, Wis., [where a Black man named Jacob Black was shot and seriously injured by a police officer] is yet another devastating reminder that we can’t stop that we can never tolerate police brutality, or any injustice, we must continue the fight to end systemic racism.”
27. Pamela Anderson
Pamela Anderson's advocacy stretches back decades, including raising awareness of animal cruelty and indigenous peoples rights. Although her feminism perhaps doesn't align with others' expectations (she has previously described the #MeToo movement as “too much”), she has consistently fought back against the assumption that she's not interested in politics, saying:
“I’m an activist, and I’m not doing it for myself […] I’m doing it for animals and people who are vulnerable and can’t speak for themselves. It was never my intention to get any credit for any of it, and people are just noticing.”
28. Ashley Graham
Ashley Graham is one of the most famous models of all time. And yet, somehow, she still has plenty of time to challenge harmful narratives about body image. In her interview with GLAMOUR, she said, “You should, if you don't have body positivity within yourself, maybe think about it from body acceptance. Remember that this is your one body that you've been given. Treat it well, speak to it kindly and remember that the younger people that are around you are watching.”
29. Aisling Bea
The actor and comedian has been making people laugh for yonks with roles in This Way Up, Living With Yourself, and Home Sweet Home Alone. She's an advocate for sustainable fashion, has called out sexism in comedy, and made short shrift of sexist headlines. In short, we love her.
30. Kim Cattrall
Best known as the badass, powerhouse Samantha Jones in Sex and the City - for which she received five Emmy Award nominations and four Golden Globe Award nominations, winning the 2002 Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress (no biggie) - Kim Cattrall has had quite the career so far. And on top of her all her red carpet obligations and on-set calls, the actor has managed to find time to support charities including AIDS LIFE, Clothes Off Our Back and Comic Relief, as well as accepting two honorary degrees and making sure to mentor young female actors hoping to make it big.
31. Charlie Craggs
Glamour UK's very own columnist, we couldn't create a list of feminist icons without including the inimitable Charlie Craggs. The award-winning, trans rights activist turned actor is the voice of Cleo Proctor in Doctor Who, and “the voice of a community” according to Vogue. In 2017, set set up the Nail Transphobia project, using it to change people’s attitudes towards transgender people, one manicure at a time. She was number one on The Guardian’s 2016 New Radicals list and listed as one of the most Influential LGBTI people in the UK according to The Independent. We're certain that it isn't just us that feel inspired by her radical and influential voice in the fight for equality.
32. Jacinda Arden
The former prime minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Arden is a model of exactly how a leader should behave (cough, cough, our current government). During her six years in the job, she instated a flagship Families Package (which increased paid parental leave to 26 weeks and introduced a weekly universal BestStart Payment for low and middle-income families with young children), rolled out a school lunches pilot programme to assist in reducing child poverty numbers, helped provide free menstrual hygiene products in schools and increased the national minimum wage sustainably. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. When she resigned earlier this year, Arden cited, “I am human; politicians are human. We give all that we can for as long as we can. And then it’s time. And for me, it’s time.” And expressed how she was looking forward to being there to see her son start school and to “finally” marry her long-term partner. The world's loss is her family's gain.
33. Raye
Rachel Agatha Keen, known professionally as Raye, is a British singer and songwriter. She rose to fame after being featured on the singles By Your Side by Jonas Blue, You Don't Know Me by Jax and and Bed by Joel Corry and David Guetta, all of which have helped earn her platinum-status BPI certifications. In addition to her music, Raye has also written tracks for other artists including Beyoncé, Little Mix, John Legend and Ellie Goulding, and in 2019 she was awarded a BMI Award in recognition for her groundbreaking artistry, creative vision and impact on the future of music. In 2024, she was nominated for a history-making 7 Brit Awards, winning 6.
34. Jameela Jamil
A big activist for mental health and toxic body image messaging, Jameela Jamil rose to fame when she began presenting for T4, and has since used her platform to advocate on behalf of those whose voice is not always heard above the noise - and sometimes even those who do, including Megahn Markle, who she praised for being a voice for other women when the Duchess first began receiving online hate. Within her media career, Jamil also made radio history by becoming the first solo female host of the BBC Radio Chart Show.
35. Alex Scott
Not only is Alex one of the UK's biggest female sporting heroes (with five FA Women's Premier League titles; one WSL title; seven Women's FA Cups; two FA Women's Premier League Cups; three FA WSL Cups and one UEFA Women's Cup to her name), she has since then paved the way for women in sports presenting – making history as the first female Sky Pundit on a Sky Sports' Super Sunday and as the first woman to commentate for the BBC for a Men's World Cup.
Alex has also spoken out about her experiences with domestic abuse as a child, and has partnered with charity Refuge to support their vital work with victims and survivors.
You can check out more of GLAMOUR'S International Women's Day content here.
