International Women’s Day: These women inspire the world

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Accelerate Action – that was the motto of International Women’s Day, which took place on March 8.

We took Women’s Day as an opportunity to ask: Which famous women are helping to implement this motto worldwide?

We introduce you to power women whose commitment is making a significant contribution to advancing the goals of the international women’s movement.

Curtain up for the ladies who are making a lasting change to our society!

But first, let’s take a brief look at why empowerment is so important.

Why is commitment needed?

In recent years, the issue of equal rights has become the focus of public attention, especially thanks to women who put their heart and soul into it.

This is a good thing, but unfortunately there are still problems that millions of women face today:

Experiences of violence
Discrimination/insult
Harassment
Unequal treatment (e.g. in terms of pay at work and in care work)

So even in 2025, it is by no means a given that women will have the same rights as men.

It is therefore high time to change this and advance the international women’s movement. The motto of this year’s International Women’s Day, Accelerate Action, is therefore more appropriate than ever.

But now to the women who are helping to make the world a fairer place!

Whitney Wolfe Herd

If you’ve ever used Bumble, you can thank Whitney Wolfe Herd for it. She founded the app and the company behind it.

In 2014, Herd envisioned a dating platform where women could make the first move on potential matches. With Bumble, they finally had control over who they wanted to get in touch with and how. This significantly reduces the risk of unpleasant chats with harassment etc.

Over time, Bumble has expanded its portfolio: women can also find new friends and business contacts in a safe environment via Bumble For Friends and Bumble Bizz.

Whether it’s a romantic partner or friends or business contacts for life: With her pro-feminist approach, Whitney Wolfe Herd has considerably simplified and improved online dating for women.

Emma Watson

Emma Watson has become famous around the world as an actress. But she is also committed to women’s rights away from the limelight, for example for the UN Women campaign HeForShe on social networks.

The international movement stands for solidarity with women all over the world. What makes it special is that men lend a voice to this campaign and actively call for women to stand up for equal rights, hence the campaign’s name.

Other famous HeForShe advocates include Simon Pegg, Kiefer Sutherland, Tom Hiddleston, Prince Harry, Matt Damon and many more.

Emma Watson is not “just” an ambassador for the campaign, she also gives talks on gender equality and campaigns for equality and fair pay for women in the film industry.

Amal Clooney

Amal Clooney has been fighting for women’s rights as an advocate for many years. Her main focus is on women in crisis regions who are affected by displacement, forced marriages, sexual violence, human trafficking and political oppression.

As a lawyer, Clooney also brings war criminals to justice and makes an indispensable contribution to international justice both in the media and in the courtroom.

She also appears on stages around the world as a special ambassador for press freedom and, as in Dubai in 2020, as an advocate for the “Women’s Pavilion”, pays tribute to women who, like her, bring about progress and change in the world.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

“We Should All Be Feminists”: the title of this book brought Nigerian writer and activist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie into the headlines worldwide. In her TED Talk of the same name, she advocates equality for women in society and denounces the fact that girls and women are taught the wrong messages from an early age, which limit their potential.

The activist breaks with traditional, outdated role models and calls on us all to rethink gender equality and treat each other as equals.

Adichie wants us to break with guilt, shame and old-fashioned structures and free ourselves from outdated expectations of the sexes. In her books, she shows us ways to a more tolerant world in which we can live together more peacefully and respectfully.

Tijen Onaran

Tijen Onaran is an entrepreneur and founder of Global Digital Women, a network for women in the digital industry. Both online and offline, Tijen is committed to the visibility of women in the German business and start-up world.

She is also committed to inclusion and diversity in the management levels of companies as well as mentoring and consulting. In this way, she wants to spread the spirit of equality.

In an episode of the KPMG podcast, Onaran explains how she practises salary negotiations with friends, what female founders can do to combat obstructive perfectionism and where the biggest challenges lie for women on the path to a management position.

Anne Wizorek

German author and feminist Anne Wizorek made a name for herself in 2013 with the hashtag #aufschrei. She has been campaigning against structural sexism and for equality and feminism for years. She advises organizations and companies on diversity issues and the implementation of contemporary digital strategies.

Wizorek has also worked as an ambassador for the Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency against gender discrimination and has written influential texts on the debates about equality.

Her book “Weil ein Aufschrei nicht reicht: Für einen Feminismus von heute” has lost none of its relevance more than ten years after its publication. In it, the author advocates modern gender images instead of pigeonholing. It was only in January of this year that a reader on Amazon described the book as a milestone in the history of feminism.

Or to put it another way: add it to your reading pile!

Luisa Neubauer

Luisa Neubauer became famous through the Fridays For Future movement, in which millions of schoolchildren took to the streets to demonstrate for a change in climate policy.

However, the environmental activist looks far beyond the horizon: she declared on Instagram that the climate crisis is sexist and needs feminist answers, that everything is connected.

The activist had already said this in an interview with Watson a few years earlier:

The roots of the climate crisis lie in power hierarchies of men over women, of white people over People of Color, of men over nature. And who can and cannot protect themselves from the climate crisis, who can or cannot cushion the consequences of the climate crisis, whether directly or indirectly, is also a question of power. And power lies disproportionately with men.

Neubauer wants to change this and thus advance the feminist idea. Go for it, Luisa!

Margarete Stokowski

In a portrait, the Süddeutsche Zeitung describes Margarete Stokowski as the “voice of German feminism”.

Stokowski gained fame through her column “Oben und unten” (Above and below) in Spiegel Online, in which she deals with the consequences and problems of a patriarchal society. Her book “Untenrum frei” has since become a widely acclaimed piece of feminist literature.

She deals with the problems of our time in a humorous and clever way, which is both entertaining and inspiring. So this is also a clear recommendation from our editorial team.