Women Who Defined 2025: Stories of Power, Courage, and Change

Women Who Defined 2025: Stories of Power, Courage, and Change
© Kuntala Bhattacharya, 1999 Electronics & Tele-Communication Engineering.

2025 is a year to be proud of, though there was turbulence, yet it was marked and defined by bold and courageous acts of women who dared not step back or aside. The perseverance, empathy, and incredible determination demonstrated by them are something to be proud of. Be it leadership, science, culture, sports, conservation, or activism, their stories remind us that influence does not always arrive with noise.

From boardrooms and film festivals to wetlands, sports arenas, and protected forests, women in 2025 have broadened the definition of leadership. Collectively, they symbolize enormous economic power and cultural influence, but more significantly, they represent tenacity in a world that often resists change.

Leadership on a Global Stage
In global finance and corporate leadership, women continued to redefine authority.
* Gita Gopinath, serving as the First Deputy Managing Director of the IMF, remained a central figure in shaping global economic conversations. Previously she was the chief economist of the IMF from 2019 to 2022. She had a two-decade long career at the economics department of Harvard University.
* In the corporate world, Leena Nair led Chanel as its Global CEO, bringing people first leadership to one of the most influential fashion houses in the world. Nair was previously Unilever’s chief human resource officer and a Unilever leadership executive member. Nair’s journey exemplifies how empathy and inclusion can coexist with scale and profitability.

Political leadership also marked a historic shift.
* Giorgia Meloni, as Prime Minister of Italy, stood among the most prominent political figures of the year. She is the first woman to hold the office since October 2022.
* In business, women such as Mary Barra at General Motors, Jane Fraser at Citigroup, Lisa Su at AMD, Vishakha Mulye at Aditya Birla Capital, and Julie Sweet at Accenture continued to lead some of the world’s largest organisations with steady influence.

Culture, Cinema, and Creative Power
Indian cinema reached a defining moment with contribution from women.

* Filmmaker Payal Kapadia won the Grand Prix at Cannes for All We Imagine As Light. The win ended a 30 year wait and reintroduced Indian storytelling to the global stage through a lens that was intimate, poetic, and deeply human. The win earned her a nomination at the Golden Gloe Award as the best director. Kapadia’s work stood out for its quiet emotional depth and its refusal to conform to spectacle-driven narratives.

* In the world of literature, history was recreated by women writers. Banu Mushtaq won the International Booker Prize for Heart Lamp, becoming the first Kannada writer to receive the honour. Her stories are rooted in coastal Karnataka’s live realities of migration, memory, and womanhood. The tales reached global audiences through translation, opening long overdue conversations about Indian language literature beyond English.

Sport, Discipline, and Breaking Records
On the field and beyond, women athletes delivered exceptional performances.
* Smriti Mandhana rewrote record books, amassing historic run totals and playing a key role in India’s World Cup victory. In 2024, she scored 1,659 international runs, breaking a 28 year old record. She followed this with an even more dominant 2025 season, becoming the first woman to score over a thousand ODI runs in a calendar year. Her consistency and grace made her one of the defining sporting figures of the year. She continues to be an inspiration for the youth.

* From a small room in Chandigarh, teenage skater Janvi Jindal stunned the country by earning eleven Guinness World Records. Self trained through online videos, her journey from lockdown hobby to national recognition became a powerful reminder that talent often blooms far from privilege. She is placed just behind Sachin Tendulkar in India’s all time Guinness record tally.

Guardians of Nature and Life
Environmental stewardship found powerful champions in 2025.

* Through Care Earth Trust, Jayshree Vencatesan revived 44 wetlands, protected ecosystems, mapped biodiversity, and stopped encroachments. She earned the Ramsar Wetland Conservation Award, the first Indian to do so. Her work safeguarded landscapes that millions depend on.

* In Assam, Dr Sonali Ghosh, Field Director of Kaziranga National Park, led conservation efforts through floods, poaching threats, and ecological crises. Her work combined scientific planning with community engagement and frontline support for forest staff. Her leadership earned her the IUCN Kenton Miller Award for innovation in protected area management, highlighting the role of empathy alongside science.

Justice, Governance, and Quiet Revolutions
Women have excelled and introduced new dimensions in crucial areas of justice and governance.
* For more than three decades, advocate Varsha Deshpande has fought gender biased sex selection in Maharashtra. Through the Dalit Mahila Vikas Mandal, she led more than fifty decoy operations that exposed illegal sex determination rackets. Her work resulted in landmark convictions, including cases in Beed that sent rogue medical practitioners to prison With her relentless legal work and decoy operations, she exposed illegal practices that many feared to confront. In 2025, her lifelong commitment was recognised with the UN Population Award.

* In governance, Mona Khandhar, a senior IAS officer, played a critical role in shaping Gujarat’s science, technology, and semiconductor ambitions. As the first woman principal secretary of the Department of Science and Technology in the state, she oversaw the implementation of the Global Capability Centre Policy and the Gujarat Semiconductor Policy. Furthermore, she oversaw projects worth over ₹1.24 lakh crore, helping position India for a technology driven future.

Influence Beyond Headlines
The year 2025 also highlighted the role of philanthropy and influence beyond formal titles.
* Philanthropist MacKenzie Scott continued her large scale support of educational institutions, particularly Historically Black Colleges and Universities, reinforcing the idea that impact is measured not only by wealth, but by where it is directed. Her contributions, amounting to over a billion dollars between 2020 and 2025, reinforced a model of giving that prioritise long term institutional strength over publicity.

A Year Written by Women
Featured across global lists by Forbes, Fortune, TIME, and several respected local publications, these women reflect the various facets of influence that appear and shape the world. Their impact stretches across economies, cultures, and institutions, whether through leading multinational organisations, shaping public discourse, or achieving excellence in fields long resistant to change.

The year 2025, however, was far from easy for women worldwide. Job losses rivalled those seen during the pandemic, online spaces grew increasingly hostile, and moments of public sexism served as reminders of how fragile progress can be. Yet, against this backdrop, the women highlighted on the 2025 Forbes Power Women list stood out for their resilience and reach.

In Japan, Sanae Takaichi made history by becoming the country’s first woman prime minister, leading a $4 trillion economy.

In the United States, philanthropist MacKenzie Scott directed nearly $700 million towards strengthening Historically Black Colleges and Universities. In the technology sector, AMD CEO Lisa Su entered a landmark agreement with OpenAI to build six gigawatts of AI chips, an ambitious deal with the potential to reshape the global AI landscape. Meanwhile, Kim Kardashian expanded her influence beyond entertainment by partnering with Nike on NikeSkim, with her brand reaching a $5 billion valuation in 2025.

Scott’s philanthropy, in particular, reflects a sustained commitment rather than a single gesture. In a 2020 public post, she revealed that she had already donated $1.7 billion to more than a hundred non profit organisations working across racial equity, LGBTQ+ rights, democracy, and climate action. Her contributions to educational institutions, including HBCUs, Hispanic serving institutions, and tribal colleges, have since crossed $800 million. Between 2020 and 2025 alone, her support for HBCUs totaled approximately $1.06 billion. In just two months, from October to November 2025, she distributed $739 million to 16 HBCUs, including Bowie State, Clark Atlanta, Norfolk State, North Carolina A\&T, Prairie View A\&M, the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, Voorhees University, Winston Salem State, and Xavier University of Louisiana.

The above stories and beyond, reveal a deeper truth about year 2025. Despite economic setbacks, social backlash, and widening inequalities, women across the world pushed forward. Their immense contribution towards restoring wetlands, breaking records, leading nations, shaping culture, and protecting life, have earned accolades world-wide. Their achievements were not accidents of circumstance. They were the result of years, often decades of work carried out with courage, discipline, and conviction. And in a world still criticizing and resisting to accept changes or being courageous to proceed forward and embrace risks, these women made 2025 a year that cannot be forgotten.

Ref:
** https://www.forbes.com/lists/power-women/
** https://www.forbesindia.com/lists/w-power-2025?profile=Mona-Khandhar
** https://thebetterindia.com/changemakers/indian-women-changemakers-2025-leadership-impact-courage-inspiration-10898949

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