The world's most influential women

People


The world's most influential women

By Stylist Team

Updated 8 years ago

Time magazine has once again announced its much anticipated and highly respected list of the 100 most influential people in the world. This year a total of 34 women make the cut, ranging from political figures such as Hillary Clinton and Angela Merkel through to iconic women including Oprah Winfrey and Aung San Suu Kyi.

We've detailed all the women to make the list below, and you can read the full list - including the men - here. With Stylist's recent poll to discover our readers' most inspirational women of the last 100 years proving such a talking point, we're sure you'll have something to say on who's on and not on the list, so please do share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Click an image below to launch the gallery.

Amy Poehler

Amy Poehler is a comedian and actress best known for her work on Saturday Night Live and films such as Baby Mama and Mean Girls.

Discover Stylist's top 20 most inspirational women of the last 100 years here


Angela Merkel

Angela Merkel is the Chancellor of Germany and was the first woman leader of a major continental European country.

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Aruna Roy

Aruna Roy is an Indian political and social activist. Aruna heads the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathana - "Workers and Peasants Strength Union" - and is best known as the prominent leader of the Right to Information movement.

Discover Stylist's top 20 most inspirational women of the last 100 years here


Arianna Huffington

Arianna Huffington is an authour, columnist, and the founder of the popular political website, The Huffington Post, which was recently purchased by AOL for a whopping $315 million.

Discover Stylist's top 20 most inspirational women of the last 100 years here


Aung San Suu Kyi

Aung San Suu Kyi is the winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize, and is the leader of Burma's democracy movement. Committed to non-violent resistance, she was released from her latest bout of house arrest which lasted more than seven years in November 2010.

Discover Stylist's top 20 most inspirational women of the last 100 years here


Bineta Diop

Bineta Diop is 61-years-old and the founder of the Femmes Africa Solidarité. She focuses on women-led peace building in Africa's most fragile states such as the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi.

Discover Stylist's top 20 most inspirational women of the last 100 years here


Cecile Richards

Cecile Richards is the president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

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Amy Chua

Amy Chua is the John M. Duff, Jr. Professor of Law at Yale Law School and the authour of the controversial parenting memoir Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother .

Discover Stylist's top 20 most inspirational women of the last 100 years here


Dilma Rousseff

Dilma Rousseff is the first female president of Brazil, and was also named the first woman to become Chief of Staff of Brazil.

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Blake Lively

Blake Lively is an actress best known for her work as Serena van der Woodsen in the hit TV series Gossip Girl, and is the face of Chanel's "Mademoiselle" handbag line.

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Felisa Wolfe-Simon

Felisa Wolfe-Simon is an American microbial geobiologist and biogeochemist.

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Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton is the United States Secretary of State.

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Esther Duflo

Esther Duflo is an economist and the co-founder of the MIT Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab.

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Heidi Murkoff

Heidi Murkoff is the co-author of the best-selling series of books that began with What to Expect When You're Expecting.

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Hu Shuli

Hu Shuli is the is the editor-in-chief of Caixin Media, Century Weekly and China Reform. She is also the Dean of the School of Communication and Design at Sun Yat-sen University.

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Hung Huang

Hung Huang is a authour, TV host, blogger, and publisher of the fashion magazine I-Look.

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Jennifer Egan

Jennifer Egan is a short story writer and novelist. Her novel A Visit From the Goon Squad won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, as well as the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction.

Discover Stylist's top 20 most inspirational women of the last 100 years here


Kate Middleton


Kathy Giusti

Kathy Giusti is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation and the Multiple Myeloma Research Consortium.

Discover Stylist's top 20 most inspirational women of the last 100 years here


Kim Clijsters

Kim Clijsters is is a Belgian professional tennis player who, as of this month, was ranked No. 2 in singles and is a former World No. 1 in both singles and doubles.

Discover Stylist's top 20 most inspirational women of the last 100 years here


Lisa Jackson

Lisa Jackson is a chemical engineer serving as the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Discover Stylist's top 20 most inspirational women of the last 100 years here


Major General Margaret Woodward

Margaret Woodward is the Major General of the US Air Force who ran the first 11 days of war against Libya and has spent almost 4,000 hours flying aerial tankers and other aircraft during her 30-year career.

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Marie Bashir

Marie Bashir is the Governor of New South Wales and also the Chancellor of the University of Sydney.

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Marine Le Pen

Marien Le Pen is a French politician, lawyer, and president of the Front National party.

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Dharma Master Cheng Yen

Dharma Master Cheng Yen is a spiritual leader and Buddhist nun who is the founder of the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation.

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Mia Wasikowska

Mia Wasikowska is an Australian actress who is best known for her work as Alice in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland.

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Gabrielle Giffords

Gabrielle Giffords is an American politician, and a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives. She is the third woman in Arizona's history to be elected to the U. S. Congress, and is currently recovering from a gunshot wound to the head after being shot at at a meeting with her constituents.

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Michele Bachmann

Michele Bachmann is a member of the United States House of Representatives, and supportive of the Tea Party Movement in America.

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Michelle Obama

Michelle Obama is the First Lady of the United States of America.

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Michelle Rhee

Michelle Rhee is the is the former chancellor of the District of Columbia Public Schools system of Washington, D.C., the founder of the New Teacher Project as well as the founder and CEO of StudentsFirst.

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Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Winfrey is a media mogul, actress, and philanthropist best known for her TV talk show, Oprah.

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Patti Smith

Patti Smith is a singer, songwriter, poet and artist.

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Rebecca Eaton

Rebecca Eaton is the executive producer of Masterpiece.

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Sue Savage-Rumbaugh

Sue Savage-Rumbaugh is a primatologist.

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Picture credits: Rex Features and Getty Images


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