Women’s History Month: Honoring the Voices of Women Who Lead

Leadership

Mar 8

Across the world, working women continue to face greater barriers to achieving education, financial independence, and positions of power than their male counterparts. In modern history, qualities often associated with women, such as warmth, compassion, collaboration, or generosity, have typically been seen as signs of weakness among male leaders in business, finance, technology, and politics. However, our technology-fueled world is changing faster than ever, and every year, more and more women emerge as powerhouse leaders.

In honor of Women’s History Month, Bespoken would like to acknowledge some of the many women in positions of leadership who are breaking down barriers and inspiring future generations to lead with purpose, passion, and poise.

FORMER FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES MICHELLE OBAMA; NEW ZEALAND PRIME MINISTER JACINDA ARDERN; ATTORNEY AND AUTHOR RESHMA SAUJANI

Michelle Obama
Leading with Strength and Warmth

When asked in team trainings or workshops, “who is a woman that inspires you, who you find to be a compelling and trustworthy leader?” Michelle Obama’s name is given nearly 100% of the time. Her hard work and accomplishments, from her degrees from Princeton University and Harvard Law School and extending through her time as First Lady of the United States, are an inspiration to many around the world. However, Ms. Obama’s strength and leadership style goes far beyond her talents and triumphs; she’s also an example of a leader who strikes an excellent balance between strength and warmth, presenting herself as trustworthy enough to handle a crisis and approachable enough to understand the needs of those around her, and living up to that image during two successful presidential campaigns and with her numerous philanthropic endeavors. During her time as First Lady, she launched the Let’s Move! campaign to battle childhood obesity and the Let Girls Learn charity along with activist Malala Yousafzai, the latter of which raised $3.5 billion dollars for girls’ education in its first year, and since her time in the White House, has produced numerous books, television series and podcasts and started the Girls Opportunity Alliance to provide girls all over the world with the opportunities to reach their full potential.

Viola Davis
Commanding the Room

Even among powerhouse Hollywood actresses, few people can command a room or effectively tell a story quite like Viola Davis. The performer recently joined an elite group of EGOT winners (having earned an Emmy for the TV series How to Get Away with Murder in 2015, a recent Grammy for the audiobook narration for her own memoir, Finding Me, an Oscar for Fences in 2017, and a Tony for King Headley II in 2001), and recently lead the 2022 action film The Woman King, an epic story of an all-female regiment of warriors defending their kingdom from the slave trade in 19th century Africa. Though Ms. Davis has described herself as a shy introvert who “shrinks from compliments,” her Woman King co-star, Sheila Atim, put it best: “She commands leadership without having to command it, because she leads by example and because everyone so admires her. She’s a true professional.” Ms. Davis’s powerful voice is the foundation for why she can inspire such attention, both onscreen and off; in addition to her many laudable performances, she has spoken publicly on topics such as public education, inclusion, and income inequality, and has collaborated with the Hunger Is campaign, explaining, "the thing that made me join...was the word 'eradicate', 'get rid of' - not by thirty-percent not by twenty-percent not by fifty-percent, but to do away [with it]. Because everyone should be a child, and should grow up and have a chance at the American dream.”

Kamala Harris
Speaking Without Apology

In 2020, Kamala Harris shattered one of the world’s most formidable glass ceilings when she became the Vice President of the United States, the first woman and the first person of color to ever hold the position. During the campaign earlier that year, Ms. Harris earned applause heard around the world when she refused to allow then-Vice President Mike Pence to interrupt her during their debate, quickly clapping back “I’m speaking” when he repeatedly attempted to cut her off. The former prosecutor was also the first person of color to be elected as the District Attorney of San Francisco, CA in 2004, during which time she secured an 87% conviction rate for homicides and a 90% conviction rate for all felony gun violations. In 2010, Vice President Harris became the first woman, African American, and South Asian American to become the Attorney General of California, and in 2016, she was elected to the United States Senate. Ms. Harris’s straight-forward communication style tends to focus specifically on data-driven solutions that eschews the usual platitudes, pointed attacks on opponents, and one-dimensional soundbites, setting her apart from many others in Washington.

Kim Petras
Demanding to Be Heard

In February 2023, Kim Petras became the first openly transgender recording artist to win a Grammy, taking home the award for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for her collaboration on the song “Unholy” with singer/songwriter Sam Smith. The song also made Petras the first openly transgender solo artist to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the United States. The German-born artist has been writing and recording music since she was a child and has been a vocal advocate for trans visibility, having shared much of her journey through international media coverage during her transition at the age of sixteen. In her Grammy acceptance speech, she thanked other transgender women who came before her, performers like Madonna for fighting for the rights of the LGBTQ+ community, and especially her mother, stating, “My mother believed me when [I said] I was a girl, and I wouldn’t be here without her support.”

Jacinda Ardern
Leading By Example

At age 37, Jacinda Ardern became the world’s youngest female head of government when she was elected Prime Minister of New Zealand in 2017, and during the course of her six year tenure in the position, was widely recognized for her responses to crises that affected her country, from her compassionate discourse on the tragic shooting at a Christchurch mosque in 2019 to her austere safety measures early in the Coronavirus pandemic, which kept infections and deaths per capita at some of the lowest levels in the world. In 2018, after less than one year in office, Ms. Ardern gave birth to a daughter, making her the world’s second elected head of government to give birth while in office. Recently, Ms. Arden has again made headlines when she announced her intention to retire from politics, plainly explaining, “I’m leaving, because with such a privileged role comes responsibility; the responsibility to know when you are the right person to lead and also when you are not. I know what this job takes. And I know that I no longer have enough in the tank to do it justice. It’s that simple.”

Reshma Saujani
Speaking with Courage - Not Perfection

At the age of 33, Attorney, Author, and Political Analyst Reshma Saujani became the first Indian-American woman to run for Congress. Though her campaign was ultimately unsuccessful, the experience inspired Saujani to truly listen to the needs of people who continue to be unfairly held back from opportunities in the world based on their ethnicity, economic class, or gender, and open the conversation on how to address these disparities. In particular, STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) have been some of the most imbalanced professions in the world when it comes to gender parity; even among women who hold positions in these fields, the gender pay gap remains stubbornly high. In 2012, Ms. Saujani started a non-profit, Girls Who Code, in an effort to address the ever-present confidence gap between girls and boys at an early age. Ms. Saujani has gone on to write numerous books on women in leadership and male-dominated fields, including bestseller Brave, Not Perfect, the basis for which also resulted in a viral TED Talk and a successful podcast, and launched The Marshall Plan for Moms, a legislative effort to address the disproportionate burden that has fallen onto mothers during the coronavirus pandemic. Ms. Saujani is a frequent contributor to CNN, TIME, Newsweek, Elle, and Vogue, among other publications.

MacKenzie Scott
Changing the World on Her Own Terms

MacKenzie Scott’s incredible approach to philanthropy has not only made an extraordinary impact in multiple sectors of American life, it has changed the practical definition of philanthropy as we know it. After finalizing her divorce from billionaire Jeff Bezos in 2019, Ms. Scott made the decision to give away billions to various causes with absolutely no strings attached. Charities and non-profits who receive donations from her estate are under no obligation to fill out lengthy applications, abide by any reporting requirements, or even provide recognition; no buildings are constructed in her name and no wings of an institution have been dedicated to her efforts. Ms. Scott has instead chosen to identify causes that need money and to provide the funds, period; a major disruption to the male-dominated world of philanthropy centered around tax write-offs and bragging rights. To date, she has given over $14 billion to roughly 1,600 non-profits and has no intention of slowing down. Her direct, purposeful, and sincere approach is an inspiration to any who dream of making the world a better place and doing so free of bureaucracy and braggadocio.

Kathleen Kennedy
Leading the Hollywood Rebellion

With eight Academy Award nominations and over one hundred production credits to her name, Kathleen Kennedy is one of the most powerful executives in Hollywood today. Kennedy began her career as a secretary, then later an associate producer, for Steven Speilberg in the early 1980s and co-founded Speilberg’s production company, Amblin Entertainment, for which she produced massive box office successes such as Back to the Future and the Indiana Jones franchise. Kennedy continued to work with Speilberg on more big-budget blockbuster films such as Jurassic Park throughout the 1990s while running her own production company, the Kennedy/Marshall project, and in 2012, she became the co-chair of Lucas Films, LTD alongside George Lucas. When Lucas sold the business to Disney later that year, Kennedy was promoted to President of the company and has since overseen the creation of the entire Star Wars franchise. For her accomplishments in the industry, Ms. Kennedy has been appointed an Honorary Commander of the Order of the British Empire, awarded a BAFTA Fellowship, a Producers Guild of America Milestone Award, and the Women in Film Mentorship Award for her devotion to guiding the next generation of powerhouse creators in entertainment. To say that Ms. Kennedy is a trailblazer in Hollywood would be a huge understatement. In an industry well known for its sexist views toward women, her success continues to inspire other women to look up to her and think, “I can do this.”

About the Author
Jackie Miller launched Bespoken in 2015 to channel years of professional performance experience into techniques that improve public speaking, presenting, and professional communication skills. She holds a B.F.A. and M.A. both from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.