What We Love Wednesdays!! Powerful Women

Happy Wednesday, everyone! 

Welcome to What We Love Wednesday! Watching 'The Iron Lady' at the cinema last week about Margaret Thatcher got us thinking about other powerful women we admire. So we decided to make a list of our favourite influential women out there today. 2011 was (in our opinion) the year of the woman, so we have a lot of lovely ladies to choose from! For the record, we didn't intentionally look towards the gay community for this list - it just so happens that a lot of the women listed represent this community, or have made an impact in it. 

Ellen DeGeneres: It's hard to remember the early 90's when Ellen was the lead character on 'Ellen' and wasn't out & proud. In fact, she came out on Oprah during the airing of the 4th season in 1997. Since then, she has hosted the Emmy's and Academy Awards and been in a number of films including voicing Dory in Finding Nemo. She also hosts her own talk show, the Ellen Degeneres Show every weekday. As much as we admire all of this, it is actually her gay-visibility and charity work that put her on our list. As a recognisable media figure and a lesbian she has made huge strides in making the gay community more accessible and understood. Her mottos of kindness & love shine through her show and you can't help but smile as she helps and supports so many people EVERY day. She's actually won 13 Emmy's for her charitable work! Ellen was lucky enough to marry the ever-so gorgeous Portia De Rossi in 2008 after the Proposition 8 ban of same-sex marriage was briefly overturned in California. Together they show that same-sex marriage can be 'normal'! 

Jane Lynch: Currently doing an amazing job playing Sue Sylvester on Glee, Jane is another high-profile lesbian in the media. We first saw Jane in Julie & Julia and then regularly in Two and a Half Men and thought she was brilliant. Jane's also been in Talladega Nights, The 40 Year Old Virgin and Role Models - all hilarious films. In 2005 she was named as one of Power Up's (Professional Organisation of Woman in Entertainment Reaching Up) '10 Most Amazing Gay Women in Showbiz' and she is being honoured with the Vanguard Award for her contribution to lesbian visibility by NCLR (National Centre For Lesbian Rights). The Vanguard Award recognises women who exemplify 'values of equality and justice'. We admire Jane for being a great comedic actress and showing that being a lesbian (or different in any other way, for that matter) shouldn't stop you from being the best in the business! 

Tabatha Coffey: Known for her hairdressing show 'Tabatha's Salon Takeover' (where she takes failing salons and turns them into successful businesses (we love it!)), Tabatha is one fiesty business woman. At no point has Tabatha hid her sexuality and, though little is known about her partner of 10 years, she is a leading lesbian. Her high profile has lead her to play a public role in LGBT support - including being photographed for NOH8 (like us!) - and in 2012 she will appear as a presenter at the 23rd GLAAD Media Awards! She has even hinted that her future plans may include running for Governor in New Jersey, where gay marriage is currently opposed. VOTE COFFEY!!

Hillary Clinton: The current Secretary of State and wife of previous President Bill Clinton, Hillary has always been a strong woman in her own right. We were actually hoping that she would beat Obama in the primaries back in 2008, but at least she is still playing a leading role in the government. The reason we admire Hillary is for her strength and commitment to her beliefs. There are far too many good things to mention about her here, but in her latest speech on gay rights (in Dec 2011) she made history. It's beautiful!!

Michelle Obama: We are lucky enough to have two influential women in the US government at the moment. Barack's lovely wife has proven herself to be a trend setter in her own right. She has gotten a lot of media attention for her choices of clothing - she is always classy, and she is the first First Lady to wear clothing from the high street. Mrs. O is not afraid to rock H&M! We find her incredibly inspiring because of her 'Let's Move!' legacy. Her goal is to reverse the scary trend of childhood obesity by serving healthier meals in schools, better food labeling and encouraging kids to do more physical activity. It's an incredibly worthwhile cause, and we are happy someone is tackling the issue and saving the next generation!


Cristina Fernadez Kirchner: In case you haven't heard of her, she is the current President of Argentina. Now, this is a controversial choice as she is in the recent news with plans to fight for the Falkland Islands -forcing an interestingly timed (thanks to the Thatcher movie) repeat of history, when Argentinian pirates took the British owned Falklands in 1982, sparking a war between Thatcher's Britain and Argentina to get them back. However if you want an example of a powerful leader, this woman has it! The UK government needs to take note. She wears more make-up than Katie Price, never leaves home without high heels and owns at least 200 little black dresses (the only colour she'll wear since the death of her husband) - oh and she is a ruthless politician. She is a strong advocate of human rights, and signed a same-sex marriage bill into law in 2010. Christina says her inspiration is Eva Peron (Evita) as she wants to make an impact on her country's history just like she did. As a mum-of-two on top of all that, she has to be admired!

We believe 2011 was the year of the woman (where were all the great men last year, anyway??) and we're sure, with fine role models like these around, 2012 will continue that trend.

Who else would you put on this list? Check back in a few weeks - we will be doing an influential women in music post!

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Love, Sarah & Laura xo


If you've enjoyed this post check out our other WWLW HERE!