International Women’s Day has come and gone for another year. And while we all celebrated the incredible trailblazing women in the world - from Grace Tame to Koa Beck and more - it seems there’s also a groundswell of collective rage uniting us.
In Australia, we’ve seen the horrifically insidious culture of sexism and sexual assault in Parliament aired. In the UK, Sarah Everard’s disappearance and suspected murder has reminded us all that we are not free, while we cannot simply walk home without risking our lives. And while we live in the seemingly inane world of influencer culture, perhaps it’s not so surprising that the women we’re googling most frequently aren’t influencers at all - they’re women of influence. Google knows pretty much everything about us these days, down to how to finish our sentences. So when it comes to role models, it knows exactly how to quantify our data. UK digital marketing agency, Reboot Online , used Time Magazine’s 100 Women of the Year to analyse their issues from 2000 to 2019. With the help of Google search data, they found the six most searched for women online in the world - and there’s not an influencer in sight. Instead, the list consists of women who are loud about their politics. Only one is a pop star - Beyonce, no less - but she’s the kind of pop star who built her 2014 VMAs performance around a mega-sized LED billboard reading ‘FEMINIST’. So, who are the most influential women in the world today? Two activists, a singer, a politician, a sportswoman, and Oprah (sorry, but she’s a category unto her own. Philanthropist, media personality, host, author, and all round force of nature). Four of the six are women of colour. All of them are vocal, brave, and game changing. Let’s meet them...
1. Greta Thunberg Racking up 2.6 million monthly global searches, the teenage activist is the face of the climate change revolution. She also famously trolled Donald Trump with her “chill, Donald” tweet. Proof that you’re never too young or too small a player to make a difference.
2. Beyonce From Destiny’s child to shaping her own destiny, the megastar’s name is searched 1.5 million times per month. Most commonly googled is ‘how old is Beyonce?’ - the 24 time Grammy winner has certainly packed a lifetime of achievement into her 39 years. From her Black Panther inspired Superbowl performance to quoting Feminist poet Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in Flawless , Beyonce makes her politics clear.
3. Angela Merkel The first female German Chancellor, holding the rank now for 15 years, is the third most Googled with just shy of a million monthly searches. Forbes named her their number one Power Woman in 2020 while Barack Obama described her in 2016 as his "closest international partner".
Image: @serenawilliams
4. Serena Williams The world number 1 tennis player comes in next with enough world records to make your eyes water. She was the highest paid female athlete in 2016 and 2017 and famously won the Australian Open while pregnant with her daughter Alexis. She has been vocal about the issues facing women in sport as well as supporting the Black Lives Matter movement, and is a force in activism as much as in Tennis.
5. Malala Yousafzai Malala Yousafzai is a Pakistani activist, founder of the Malala Fund, and the youngest Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Her extraordinary story of fighting back against Taliban forces who denied girls education (and shot her in the process) is one that reminds us how far we have come - and how far there is yet to go.
6. Oprah Winfrey Rounding out the list is none other than the inimitable O. At 67 years old her net worth is 2.7 billion dollars, while her legacy is beyond quantifying. From tackling racism and sexism, to founding an empire, revolutionisng daytime TV and establishing ‘the Oprah Effect’ - influencing everything from voting to book sales - Oprah is proof that ‘your lane’ is no place for a woman to stay.
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