Global women icons

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the International Women’s Day. The day was established for global celebration of women’s achievements (economic, political and social) as well as for forwarding the women’s struggle for equal rights in professional ranks. As we celebrate the day’s 100th birthday, Joseph Ssemutooke looks at some of the women that have surpassed limitations to score immense achievements on the world scene.

POLITICS
Benazir Bhutto, Twice Pakistani prime minister 1988-1990 and 1993-1996
She was the first elected female leader of a Muslim state. While in office, she extended electricity to the countryside, built schools and focused on eliminating hunger, housing and health problems in the country.

Margaret Thatcher, British Prime Minister 1979-1990
She was Britain's first female prime minister and the first to win three consecutive terms. She served as an MP and held various ministerial portfolios before she was elected leader of the Conservative Party, bringing the party to victory in 1979. She earned the nickname “The Iron Lady” due to her hardline positions against USSR after its invasion of Afghanistan.

Indira Ghandi, prime minister of India 1966-1970 and 1980-1984.
Through an election, she became India’s (and the entire Asia’s) first female prime minister. Though pressurised out of office by her opponents, she won re-election in 1980 and was assassinated in office in 1984.

Due to her vocal activism, she was jailed several times by British colonialists during India’s struggle for independence.

Elen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberian president
She is the first democratically electd female president in Africa. She has overseen a steady recovery of Liberia having been ravaged by war.

She has also devotedly worked towards promoting peace, security, unity, reconciliation and development through education and attraction of foreign investment.

Madeleine Albright, Condolezza Rice and Hillary Clinton - US female secretaries of state.
In 1996, Albright became the first female US secretary of state in the country’s history. She was later followed by Condolezza Rice who served between 2006 and 2009. Hillary Rodham Clinton is the current US secretary of state.

SOCIAL work
Marie Stopes, pioneer in the field of family planning.
She was a pioneer promoter of safe birth control for women and was a passionate promoter of women's rights and women's sexual pleasure. She played a major role in demystifying taboos about sex and increased knowledge on reproductive health. She opened Britain's first birth control clinic in 1921 and founded clinics in several other countries.

Mother Teresa, Catholic nun and philanthropist
She is considered by many as the foremost model of true Christianity in the modern era. She devoted her entire life to serving the needy.

As a teenager she resolved that her vocation would be doing good for humanity and she headed to India to start charity work after becoming a nun.

Entertainment
Oprah Winfrey, TV personality and entrepreneur.
Oprah is an icon not only in the world of business but also in the media, entertainment and public discourse. She has a personal fortune estimated at more than half a billion dollars, making her the second richest woman in the world.

She is an accomplished actress with an Academy Award nomination and owns a production company which creates feature films and prime-time TV specials. She has been ranked among the most powerful women in the world.

Her daily talk show is viewed by an estimated 14 million people daily in the U.S and millions more in 132 other countries. She has raised millions of dollars from the public for charities such as sending disadvantaged children to college and establishing housing for the poor.

Madonna Louise Ciccon, singer and actor
Having sold more than 200 million copies of her music over an almost three-decade career, and generated over $1b in sales within the first decade of her career, the controversial living legend is one of the world's highest earning female singers.

She is listed by the Guinness World Book of Records as the world's most successful and best-selling female recording artist of all time. She is considered a revolutionary in the recording industry for having stretched the limits of expression beyond the old limits, especially to accommodate freedom of sexuality. She is also credited for having influenced public discourse on sexuality and feminism. Madonna has also received acclaim as a role model for businesswomen in the entertainment industry, achieving the kind of financial control that women had long fought for within the industry".

J.K. Rowlings, the British billionaire writer
The story of this woman, who is the creator of the Harry Porter fantasy world, is another vibrant testimony of how far women have come in the professional circles. Far from the days when women had to use pseudonyms to publish their works, J.K Rowlings is the wealthiest author today, the second best selling author alive after Daniel steel and the 11th best-selling author of all times, having sold more than 400 million copies of her works altogether. She is also a philanthropist and a human rights advocate. She is considered one of the 50 most powerful women alive.

3. Amy Pascal, chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group and co-chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment

Others include: Katherine Hepburn and Marylin Monroe (actresses), Danielle Steel (writer), Judy McGrath (chairperson and CEO of MTV Networks), Dana Walden (chairman of 20th Century Fox Television), etc.