20 The influential women you’ve never heard of
One’s a single mum who runs a £2bn firm. One could cure dementia. One’s songs are said to define modern sex . . .
WHEN Edward Enninful took over the editorship of Vogue last year he vowed to ‘get rid of posh girls’ and make the magazine an ‘inclusive’ read.
And there is no doubting that those who made the fashion bible’s list of Britain’s 25 most influential women, released yesterday, are a diverse bunch.
Many were relative unknowns — while the likes of Theresa May and the Queen were nowhere to be seen. In fact, the only ones you’re likely to have heard of are Meghan Markle, J.K. Rowling and Amal Clooney.
But one thing does unite them to a woman: they’re all achingly right-on. So just who are these people Vogue deems so influential in today’s Britain — and what makes them so powerful? Here,
HELEN CARROLL unmasks 20 of them . . .
BLUE PLANET BOSS WHO SHOCKED US INTO ACTION
WHO IS SHE? Orla Doherty, TV producer and environmentalist.
WHY INFLUENTIAL? She is the producer behind the BBC’s Blue Planet 2 series that helped the Mail draw the nation’s attention to the devastation being caused in our oceans by discarded plastic.
SHE SAYS: ‘ You do find yourselves in extraordinary situations [referring to her work]. To me it’s just part and parcel of what we’re doing, especially when we’re exploring the hardest parts of the ocean to reach.’
SINGLE MUM WHO BECAME AN AD TYCOON
WHO IS SHE? Karen Blackett, 45, an advertising director, who grew up in Reading.
WHY INFLUENTIAL? A single mother raised by working- class parents from Barbados, she manages a £2 billion turnover and staff of 17,000 as country manager of advertising and PR giant WPP.
SHE SAYS: Her father warned her life would be tough. ‘He told me: “You are black and female so you’ll have to work twice as hard.”’
THE ‘LITTLE PERSON’ WITH THE BIG VOICE
WHO IS SHE? Sinead Burke, 27, an Irish writer and academic doing her PhD at Trinity College, Dublin, on human rights education.
WHY INFLUENTIAL? At just 3ft 5in, Sinead, who was born with achondroplasia, the most common form of dwarfism, and who describes herself as ‘ a little person’, is campaigning to make the fashion industry more inclusive. She attended the Davos summit last year for world leaders, along with Bill Gates and Donald Trump.
SHE SAYS: ‘The word “midget” is a slur. It evolved from P. T. Barnum’s era of circuses and freak shows. Language is a powerful tool. It does not just name our society. It shapes it.’
MUSIC MAESTRO HAILED BY THE QUEEN
WHO IS SHE? Grace Ladoja, 31, a music executive, film-maker and photographer from North London.
WHY INFLUENTIAL? Grace was this year awarded an MBE for her services to music development in England — most notable is her contribution to the grime music scene (a gritty type of British rap).
SHE SAYS: ‘As a scene, we have all worked hard to leave an impression on this Earth and create new blueprints so the next generation can flourish. I think that’s my calling in life.’
THE COMPASSIONATE DEMENTIA SCIENTIST
WHO IS SHE? Priyanka Joshi, 29, a brilliant young biochemist.
WHY INFLUENTIAL? As a fellow in biochemistry at Downing College, Cambridge, she sits at the cutting edge of Alzheimer’s research, and has been praised for her work building a ‘library’ of molecules to target degenerative brain diseases.
SHE SAYS: ‘The process of finding a cure for Alzheimer’s disease unlocks many secrets about how our brain functions in relation to decision making and human behaviour.’
OLD ETONIAN’S WILD PARTY GIRL
WHO IS SHE: Edie Campbell, 27, a model from London. Last year, she threw a birthday bash in Northamptonshire where she appeared semi-naked with the word ‘filthy’ across her breasts. Dad Roddy is an Old Etonian society fixture.
WHY INFLUENTIAL? She has featured in advertising campaigns for everyone from Burberry to Yves Saint Laurent. More recently, she became a vocal member of an online campaign to raise awareness about harassment of models in the fashion industry.
SHE SAYS: ‘We operate within a culture that is too accepting of abuse, in all of its manifestations. This can be the ritual humiliation of models, belittling of assistants, power plays and screaming fits. We’ve come to see this as simply a part of the job.’
THE TRANSGENDER VEGAN BEAUTY GURU
WHO IS SHE? Sue Y Nabi, 50, a ‘beauty innovator’ from Algeria.
WHY INFLUENTIAL? After spending two decades working as global president for L’Oreal (which she helped to expand into a £4 billion brand business) and Lancome, she launched vegan, genderless antiageing skincare brand Orveda. She had a gender change 15 years ago.
SHE SAYS: ‘You have to let the universe take care of things; you do your best and, after that, the forces that surround you take care of the rest.’
MODEL OF THE YEAR AND EX-ADDICT
WHO IS SHE? Adwoa Aboah, 26.
WHY INFLUENTIAL? The shavenheaded Londoner was named Model of the Year at the Fashion Awards in December. She has been open about her battles with depression and drugs.
SHE SAYS: ‘Sometimes I feel like I’m adding to that worm hole of imagery that’s so detrimental to how women look at themselves.’
DEVOUT CHRISTIAN DOCTOR WHO STAR
WHO IS SHE: Born in Guyana and raised in Tottenham, Letitia Wright, 24, has acted since 2011.
WHY INFLUENTIAL? As well as her roles in several TV series including Black Mirror and Doctor Who, Letitia starred in the blockbuster films Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War. She is a Christian taking time out of her career to ‘discover my relationship with God’.
SHE SAYS: ‘Just create your art, tell your stories,’ she told her thousands of Twitter followers. ‘Do your thing. The opinions of others can stop so much creativity.’
£30M TELLY BOSS
WHO IS SHE: Carolyn McCall, 56, is a television boss who was born in India and raised in UK. In January, after seven years as the CEO of easyJet (where she built a personal fortune of £30 million), she became the first female CEO of ITV.
WHY INFLUENTIAL? As ITV’s boss, she earns close to £4 million a year, including bonuses and shares. She was a vocal opponent of Brexit and suggested that leaving Europe could return Britain to the Nineties, when ‘few people flew’.
SHE SAYS: ‘The EU has brought huge benefits for UK travellers and businesses,’ she said prior to the referendum. ‘Staying in the EU will ensure that they, and all of us, continue to receive them. How much you pay for your holiday really does depend on how much influence Britain has in Europe.’
THE MOST POWERFUL WOMAN IN ART
WHO IS SHE? Maria Balshaw, the 48- year- old, Birmingham- born director of The Tate gallery.
WHY INFLUENTIAL? Hailed as a pivotal figure in the cultural regeneration of Manchester, she ran two major museums there while at the same time performing the role of director of culture for Manchester City Council, prior to taking over at The Tate last year.
She’s been called ‘the most powerful woman in art’. She ran into some trouble last year when she said of sexual harassment: ‘I personally have never suffered any such issues. Then, I wouldn’t. I was raised to be a confident woman who, when I encountered harassment, would say, “Please don’t”… or something rather more direct.’
Some said this blamed the victims of abuse — and she apologised.
SHE SAYS: ‘When I did art at graduate level you had to look hard to find a woman artist on the walls of any gallery anywhere. Now we have a woman Turner Prize winner . . . We [at the Tate] strive to tell a more diverse art history.’
SOCIAL MEDIA GURU WHO BROKE HER BACK
WHO IS SHE? Hannah Anderson, 26, co- founder of Social Chain, which runs social media campaigns for big brands.
WHY INFLUENTIAL? Having cofounded Manchester company Social Chain she is behind some of the most successful social media campaigns for the world’s biggest brands. Given that she was going to be a primary school teacher before turning her talents to social media influencing — and that she returned to work within weeks of breaking her back trampolining earlier this year — she’s a force to be reckoned with.
SHE SAYS: ‘As much as anger and frustration will make people share, the best way to make people act is to induce AWE! Awe is the most arousing emotion and will make your content fly!’
POP’S BIG NEWCOMER
WHO IS SHE? Dua Lipa, 22, a singer from London whose family is originally from Albania.
WHY INFLUENTIAL? Her music was downloaded more than any other female artist in Britain last year and she made history at the Brit Awards by becoming the first woman to receive five nominations in one night. Her hit New Rules is said to be an anthem of female empowerment, a blueprint for modern sex lives, which has had more than a billion views on YouTube.
SHE SAYS: She’s very vocal on sexism in the music industry. ‘For a male artist, people instantly assume they write their own music, but for women, they assume it’s all manufacture,’ she once said.
And: ‘For a female artist, it takes a lot more to be taken seriously if you’re not sat down at a piano or with a guitar, you know?’
THEATRE’S ANTIABUSE CAMPAIGNER
WHO IS SHE? Vicky Featherstone, 51, lives in Twickenham, Surrey, and is artistic director of the Royal Court.
WHY INFLUENTIAL? Vicky’s rapid response to systematic sexual abuse in the theatre world earned her much praise among the Twitterati. She published a code of conduct after listening to 150 testimonies over five hours, and this is said to have become an ‘industry benchmark’.
SHE SAYS: ‘Hollywood can speak out, British theatre must, too,’ she said on Twitter after news of the Harvey Weinstein accusations broke. ‘I have a responsibility as do many of you to end the abuses of power in our industry. Thoughts on what I/we should do?’
YOGA-LOVING RUSSIAN ART LOVER
WHO IS SHE? Yana Peel, 44, CEO of the Serpentine Galleries.
WHY INFLUENTIAL? After setting up the Outset Contemporary Art Fund, which connects artists with patrons, Yana took over the Serpentine Galleries, building its reputation as one of Britain’s leading art institutions.
SHE SAYS: When asked who her heroes are, her humbling response was: ‘My grandmothers. One survived the siege of Leningrad, the other was the first female student to be accepted at law school there. Their fighting spirit lives on in my daughter.’
THE GLOBE-TROTTER
WHO IS SHE? Antonia Romeo, 43, permanent secretary at the Department for International Trade.
WHY INFLUENTIAL? Formerly Britain’s first female consul in New York, and now head of the DIT — set up in the wake of the EU referendum result — Antonia is responsible for drawing up trade rules for post-Brexit Britain.
SHE SAYS: ‘ We’ve seen Women’s Marches and the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements reverberate around the world . . . Yet we know there is some way to go before there is true equality. Look at the gender pay gap.’
THE FOOTBALL BOSS
WHO IS SHE? Collette Roche, 43, Chief Operating Officer of Manchester United. WHY INFLUENTIAL? Her appointment in April to the executive board made her the most senior female figure in Manchester United’s history. As it is the wealthiest club in the world, this makes her one of the most powerful women in sport. SHE SAYS: ‘I think the time is right now for women in business to step up to the plate,’ she said in a YouTube video. ‘Everybody is looking for ways to increase the number for females in senior roles so there is no reason why you shouldn’t be able to achieve it.’
70-SOMETHING LEGAL EAGLE
WHO IS SHE? Brenda Hale, 73, President of the Supreme Court and Baroness Hale of Richmond.
WHY INFLUENTIAL? Baroness Hale has blazed a trail for women throughout her career. She was the first woman appointed to the Law Commission in 1984 and the first female Lord of Appeal in Ordinary two decades later.
Last year, the septuagenarian became the first female president of the highest court in Britain.
She has attracted controversy for her views on divorce and the EU referendum, claiming the Government should have been forced to repeal the European Communities Act before it triggered Article 50.
SHE SAYS: As a legal academic, she once wrote: ‘We should be considering whether the legal institution of marriage continues to serve any useful purpose.’
ECO FASHION GURU
WHO IS SHE? Stella McCartney, 46, is a fashion designer. WHY INFLUENTIAL? You might have heard of Stella, yes, but do you know why she’s so influential? In March, she bought back a 50 per cent share of her label from luxury conglomerate Kering to take full control of her business, meaning she’s likely to have the most creative control of almost any mainsteam fashion designer — and making her one of the world’s most powerful independent labels. SHE SAYS: ‘I’m a real believer that just doing a little something is a lot better than doing a lot of nothing.’
THE RISING TORY STAR
WHO IS SHE: Ruth Davidson, 39, leader of the Scottish Conservatives and MSP.
WHY INFLUENTIAL? According to Vogue, ‘Davidson is a beacon, thanks to her relatable personality and progressive ideas — not to mention her spectacular gains for her party in the last Scottish elections’. Widely tipped as a future Tory leader.
SHE SAYS: ‘ I believe in Scotland’s place within the United Kingdom today as much as ever.’