[dropcap]O[/dropcap]n March 8, we celebrate International Women’s Day. International Women’s Day is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. Ever since first held in New York on February, 28 1909, this celebration has been progressed and revised by lots of women organization in the world until the United Nations General Assembly made it official that March 8 is celebrated as International Women’s Day. In honor of that day, i made a list of women who changed history in every sector including entertainment, cultural, social, economic, etc.
Malala Yousafzai
Being a children and women’s rights activists, Malala has stood up for women’s and children’s right ever since she was a child. She started her activism for the first time on September 2008 when she was 12, when her father took her to Peshawar, to a local press club in which she gave a speech titled “How Dare the Taliban Take Away My Basic Right To Education” . This caused the Taliban issued a death threat because of her activism, in which 4 years later she was being shot in an attempt to assassinate her by a Taliban gunman. Fortunately, she survived, and her activism and incident gained international attentions, and on her 16th birthday on 2013, she gave speech for the United Nations to call for worldwide access education and even the United Nations called the event “Malala Day”. She also received a Nobel Peace Prize in the following year, making her the youngest Nobel prize winner.
Ellen DeGeneres
She is mostly known as a comedian, television host, actress, writer and producer. She is openly lesbian, and has married to her wife, Portia de Rossi on 2008 after the legalization of same-sex marriage in California ( also known as Prop 8). She is an icon for LGBT people, she is also an active member of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) and spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign’s Coming Out Project. She has her own television show called “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” in which she invites actors, singers, internet famous, influential people, and even activists to have a chat with her. Her show made her won “Daytime Emmy Awards” for so many times, made her considered as ‘Daytime Emmy Juggernaut’. Recently, on 2016, she won Presidential Medal of Freedom aka the United States’ Highest Civilian Honor which given directly by President Barack Obama.
Beyoncé
She is a famous pop singer, songwriter and actress. Started her singing career with a girl trio, ‘Destiny’s Child’. The group became one of the best-selling group of all time, until the group decided to have a hiatus to pursue solo careers on 2002. On 2003, Beyoncé started her solo career as a singer with her debut album ‘Dangerously in Love‘. As a solo artist she has sold over 17 million albums in the US, and over 100 million records worldwide (a further 60 million additionally with Destiny’s Child), making her one of the best-selling music artists of all time. Beyoncé has won 22 Grammy Awards, both as a solo artist and member of Destiny’s Child, making her the second most honored female artist by the Grammys, behind Alison Krauss. and the most nominated woman in Grammy Award history with a total of 62 nominations. Her recent visual album, Lemonade telling about feminism and black culture, along with elements of betrayal, anger, revenge, and forgiveness. One of the song’s music video, Formation received mixed response for its alleged anti-police stance, but yet most of the critics praised the song and lyrics saying that it’s ‘powerful’ and ’empowering’.
Michelle Obama
Michelle Obama is a lawyer and writer who was First Lady of The United States from 2009-2017. She is married to the 44th President of United States, Barack Obama. She is also an advocate for poverty awareness, nutrition, physical activity and healthy eating. Her political and activism works as First Lady are really inspiring, some initiatives of First Lady Michelle Obama include advocating on behalf of military families, helping working women balance career and family, encouraging national service, and promoting the arts and arts education. On May 2014, she joined the campaign to bring back school girls who had been kidnapped in Nigeria. on 2010, Obama undertook her first lead role in an administration-wide initiative, which she named “Let’s Move!,” to make progress in reversing the 21st century trend of childhood obesity. She’s also supporting the LGBT rights and same-sex marriage in which she said :
This is an important issue for millions of Americans, and for Barack and me, it really comes down to the values of fairness and equality we want to pass down to our girls. These are basic values that kids learn at a very young age and that we encourage them to apply in all areas of their lives. And in a country where we teach our children that everyone is equal under the law, discriminating against same-sex couples just isn’t right. It’s as simple as that.
Aung San Suu Kyi
Having fought courageously for human rights and democracy, Suu Kyi is the world’s only Nobel Peace Prize recipient currently imprisoned. She is the leader of the National League for Democracy in Burma, and has been imprisoned by the country’s military dictatorship off-and-on since July of 1989. Advocating nonviolent resistance in the tradition of Mohandas Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Suu Kyi has refused to accept freedom in exchange for banishment from her country. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.Suu Kyi founded the National League for Democracy in Burma (NLD), rallying citizens and making public speeches in favor of establishing a democratic government. The next year she was placed under house arrest. In 1995 she was given permission to leave the country, on the grounds that she would never be allowed to return. She refused. Her husband and children were forbidden to enter the country to visit her. In recent years various organizations, including the UN, have attempted to negotiate Suu Kyi’s release, all to no avail; today she remains under house arrest.
JK Rowling
A British author known for the Harry Potter series, which have sold more than 400 million copies worldwide and won numerous awards, JK Rowling has become one of the world’s most successful and influential novelists. Aside from her literary work, Rowling has established and contributed to charitable organizations to fight poverty and social inequality throughout the world. The succeeding books (7 total) have become some of the most beloved and successful (and controversial) in the world –- she is the first person in the world to become a billionaire (in US dollars) just from authoring books. Since becoming so wealthy, Rowling has donated funds to several different charities, especially in the areas of poverty and multiple sclerosis (the disease from which her mother died). Her contributions, as well as her volunteer work, have been an example to millions of young readers.
Yoani Sanchez
Not allowed to work openly as a journalist, Yoani Sanchez has persisted in covertly publishing unbridled observations and reports about her native Cuba via the Internet. She uses her blog, Generacion Y, to communicate with the world in a way that she ordinarily would never have been able to. She won the Ortega and Gasset Journalism Award in Spain, but was forbidden to travel to the ceremony. Generacion Y is a window into a socialist state, complete with propaganda campaigns and highly-restricted access to outside news sources. Having lived in Switzerland for 2 years because of “disillusionment and economic frustration,” Sanchez gained exposure to outside sources of news and history, which no doubt have allowed her to compare life and politics in Cuba to that of other nations. Those years also allowed her to learn the skills needed to build a blog –- a blog that she now uses to share the struggles of the people of Cuba with the rest of the world, filter-free.
Laverne Cox
She’s an American actress, reality tv star, tv producer and LGBT advocate. She’s famous for playing the character Sophia Burset on Netflix’s ‘Orange Is The New Black’. she became the first openly transgender person to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in the acting category, and the first to be nominated for an Emmy Award since composer/musician Angela Morley in 1990. In 2015, she became the first openly transgender person to have a wax figure of herself at Madame Tussauds. In 2017, she became the first transgender person to play a transgender series regular on broadcast TV as Cameron Wirth on Doubt on CBS. Laverne Cox has been noted by her LGBT peers, and many others, for being a trailblazer for the transgender community, and has won numerous awards for her activist approach in spreading awareness. Her impact and prominence in the media has led to a growing conversation about transgender people, specifically transgender women, and how it intersects with one’s race and identity. She is the first transgender person to be on the cover of Time magazine. In May 2016, Cox was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from The New School in New York City for her progressive work in the fight for gender equality.
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