What a year for women! 2018 was, without a doubt, one of the most defining years for women. Many women achieved monumental firsts while others bravely stepped forward to become leaders and icons of our time. Throughout all sectors and industries, women have paved or continue to pave the way for future women to create change. They demonstrated how powerful it is to speak up about what was most important to them and to share their experiences. Here is a list of women from 2018 who truly inspire us.

 

Dr. Christine Blasey Ford

Dr. Ford didn’t just speak up for her country. She spoke up for sexual assault survivors. She knew that her life would be completely up-ended for accusing then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault. Despite the inevitable repercussions, she spoke up and became one of the most courageous women in our society. She and her family are still receiving death threats and constant harassment. But her boldness will never be forgotten and she has inspired countless people to stand up against injustices.

 

Michelle Obama

It’s been a few years since Michelle Obama left the White House as the First Lady and in the meantime, she has mostly kept a low profile. But Obama returned to the public spotlight in February for her first big speech and honestly, we’ve missed her. She continues to be a compassionate, confident, and relatable personality among what seems like a deluge of frustrating news. And with the release of her memoir, Becoming, she shares so much about the challenges she faced and the work that she had to do. She has become more admirable in our eyes.

 

Emma Gonzalez

On February 14th, seventeen students and staff members of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland died to a gunman while 17 more were injured, making this the most deadly high school shooting in American history. Emma Gonzalez is one of the survivors of this terrible shooting and, along with her other surviving classmates, sparked a movement for gun control and youth advocacy. She stood up against the NRA and its spokesperson to challenge its tight grip on gun reform. She then stood in front of thousands in the March For Our Lives, which advocated for the people of her generation dealing with so many school mass shootings.

 

Heidi Zak

Zak is the co-creator of Thirdlove, an up-and-coming online lingerie company with innovative bra sizes and designs to accommodate a broad spectrum of women. In doing so, Zak and Thirdlove are committed to empowering women to feel comfortable and confident in their everyday lives. We appreciate how Zak and her company are emphasizing how clothes must fit women instead of women needing to fit into clothes of unrealistic standards.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Ocasio-Cortez is one of the most prominent new legislators elected from this year’s midterms and for good reason. She is not only the youngest woman to be elected to Congress but she is also a woman with an ambition that is unmatched by anyone. She has numerous progressive issues that she ran on her successful campaign: Medicare for all, free tuition colleges, abolishing ICE, and more. Ocasio-Cortez is a shining example of being fearless, especially against a rigid status quo.

 

Fran Hauser

If you’re ever looking for an example of an excellent female venture capitalist who walks the walk and talks the talk, then look no further than Hauser. The majority of her investments are female-founded start-ups, such as HelloGiggles, Levo, and Mogul. In addition, she also published this year her book called The Myth of the Nice Girl: Achieving a Career You Love Without Becoming a Person You Hate, which unpacks the perception of “too nice” girls and “too focus” girls respectively and how such behavior can affect a woman’s career.

 

Donna Strickland

Strickland is the first woman in 55 years to be awarded alongside her peers the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics and is the third woman in history to be given this prestigious award. Strickland, along with her two other colleagues, found a way to stretch and compress lasers to produce short, intense pulses that are now used, among other things, in delicate surgeries to fix vision problems. There was very little that we knew about Strickland before her win, possibly highlighting how many in the community do not acknowledge female scientists enough. As Strickland has stated  “We need to celebrate women physicists because we’re out there. Hopefully, in time, it will start to move forward at a faster rate.”

 

Jameela Jamil

Jamil has been really outspoken this year to encourage conversations around celebrities and accountability. In 2018, she launched a movement with @i_Weigh to encourage women to feel valuable and look beyond the flesh on their bones. Now, more than ever, many young girls and women feel the pressure to feel like they have to be and look perfect. To combat this, Jamil tries to have more conversation of being able to criticize many celebrities products that sell fantasies. As well being outspoken about the fashion industry.

 

Stacey Cunningham

Cunningham is the 67th president of the New York Stock Exchange, becoming the first woman to hold the position in the company’s 226-year history. Although she said previously that she has tried not to be different, she understands how it is important to show other women that this field is mostly dominated by men. But perhaps this will finally slowly change, thanks to Cunningham. She has broken a glass ceiling and, to symbolize such progress, she had a part in moving the iconic Fearless Girl statue to the front of the New York Stock Exchange building as a way to show how women need to be part of the industry.

Constance Wu

Wu is the lead actress in the groundbreaking movie Crazy, Rich Asians. She was just nominated for a Golden Globe for best performance by an actress in a musical or comedy motion picture, making Wu the first Asian American woman in 44 years to be nominated in that category. In the last few years, she has been very vocal in her support of better onscreen diversity and in support of women in the #Metoo movement.

 

Serena Williams

After the difficult birth of her daughter, Olympia, Williams announced that she wouldn’t be defending her Australian Open title. While absolutely reasonable, what no one anticipated was how she seemed to come back even stronger.  When she was accused of cheating during the final match of the U.S. Open and then punished for talking back to the umpire, many immediately recognized how there is a double standard for female athletes. Williams is consistently a powerful figure year after year as she exceeds and breaks expectations.

 

Jenny Davidson

Davidson is the CEO and Executive Director of Stand Up Placer, a nonprofit that supports survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking, while also running a shelter which accepts survivors and their pets. This nonprofit has been around a lot longer than the #MeToo movement while Davidson has been focusing on these causes for years and all their work is paying off: In 2017, Stand Up Placer assisted more than 2,000 victims of domestic violence and over 400 sexual assault victims.

 

Sen. Tammy Duckworth

We’ve been admiring veteran and hardworking Sen. Duckworth for a while. This year, Senator Duckworth of Illinois became the first woman to give birth while serving in office. Not too long afterward, Sen. Duckworth also became the first person to bring a baby on the Senate floor and possibly breastfeed the baby, even during a vote. But when asked about this historic development, she reminds us all the true reality of the situation: this should be normal.