The Most Inspiring Women of Our Time

As a mother of a sassy little nine year old girl, I always like to keep a curious eye on what is considered cool in her world. Firstly, there’s an element of nostalgia – is she worshipping the same kind of idols that I did at that age? Secondly, I have a curiosity about what looks good through her eyes and is it appropriate and thirdly, full disclosure, even at 48 I’m still embarrassingly in pursuit of some kind of cool myself – aren’t we all?

That’s why I was interested in this recent poll of 2,000 British women, asking them to vote for the women in the public eye who they considered to be the “coolest and most inspiring” in these current and crazy times

The results are interesting (see below), with The Duchess of Cambridge topping the list, just ahead of Michelle Obama and The Queen. When asked what made a person cool and a role model, more than half the women polled (57%) said it was a strong sense of their own identity. More than four in ten (43%) said caring for others was vital, 32% said they should empower other women, while 34% felt being humble was the coolest trait.

COOLEST FEMALES OF THE MOMENT 

1.The Duchess of Cambridge – 23%

2. Michelle Obama – 21%

3.The Queen – 20%

4. Billie Eilish – 20%

5. Adele – 19% 

6. Greta Thunberg – 14%

7. Jacinda Ardern – 13% 

8. Katy Perry – 12%

9. Emma Watson – 12%

10. Kylie Jenner – 11%

11. Beyoncé – 11%

12. Phoebe Waller Bridge – 10%

13. Alex Scott – 10%

14. Taylor Swift – 9%

15. Meghan Markle – 9%

16. Meryl Streep – 8%

17. Chrissy Teigen – 8%

18. Emilia Clarke – 7%

19. Rachel Riley – 7%

20. Hilary Clinton – 6%

21. Oprah Winfrey – 6%

22. Lucy Bronze – 6%

23. Reese Witherspoon – 5%

24. Melinda Gates – 5%

25. Gigi Hadid – 5%

I put this to the test with my nine year old. I got her to look at the list and pick out her top three.  This is who she chose and why:

1. Taylor Swift, because she’s my idol and is fighting for women’s rights.
2. Greta Thunberg, she’s worked really hard for climate change.
3. The Queen, well, duh she’s the queen.

I was pretty proud of that.

It got me thinking about what might be behind the votes given to all these famous women. Cool, as a word, can be interpreted so many ways. What started as a quick internet search for a definition, ended up as a trip down a rabbit hole of interpretive subjectivity.

            I spent a while trying to analyze the list, looking for things the women had in common and the things that distinguished them or were more specific. I got to this:

• The baseline for cool might be defined as confidence with an element of sass. All the women on the list have that – discuss?
• On that base, the coolest people bring elements of the following:
  • Talent in something, be it sport, music, arts, science – anything where you excel.
  • Smartness or intelligence.
  • A commanding presence or ability to lead.
  • Compassion and kindness (my personal favourite).

I also considered this. Were there some on the list whose coolness may actually just be based on luck? By that I mean lucky to be born rich, lucky to marry well, lucky to have been born exceptionally beautiful or in some cases all three. Is that truly cool?

            In even thinking this I felt bad. Luck is no fault of the recipient right? There are degrees of luck in all the good bits of all our lives. But what does matter – to me, this mother of a nine year old girl, is that the luckier cool girls channel their influence in the right way; that they direct it for the good. In that way, they’re giving my girl something that’s truly worth admiring and aiming for in herself.

Thankfully, I think my nine year old worked this out before I did. Cool.

*The research of 2,000 British females was conducted by polling firm Perspectus Global in May 2020