Time releases its inaugural Women of the Year list

by Jenna Romaine | March 2, 2022 | Mar. 03, 2022

(Credit: Camila Falquez for TIME via Sunshine Sachs)

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Time announced its inaugural Women of the Year list on Thursday.
The list includes 12 women across the entertainment, activism, and innovation sectors working toward sparking change.
The list’s debut acts as a yearly follow-up from Time’s 2020 Women of the Year project, which recognized and honored 100 women “innovators, activists, entertainers, athletes and artists who defined a century.”

Time announced its inaugural Women of the Year list on Thursday.

“When we sat down last fall to conceive a version of this project that could become an ongoing tradition, we chose to spotlight leaders who are working to create a better future for women everywhere,” executive editor Naina Bajekal and senior editor Lucy Feldman wrote in a press release. “Our 2022 Women of the Year list features 12 individuals who have reached across communities, generations, and borders to fight for a more inclusive and equitable world.”

The full list includes women across the entertainment, activism, and innovation sectors working toward sparking change: software engineer Tracy Chou, Olympian Allyson Felix, poet and activist Amanda Gorman, social entrepreneur and civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen, president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund Sherrilyn Ifill, health advocate and midwife Jennie Joseph, trans actress and activist Michaela Jaé Rodriguez, actor and activist Kerry Washington, singer-songwriter Kacey Musgraves, human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman, and Afghan journalist Zahra Joya.

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The list’s debut acts as a yearly follow-up from Time’s 2020 Women of the Year project, which recognized and honored 100 women “innovators, activists, entertainers, athletes and artists who defined a century.”

“The collective action of these women will continue to reshape the world towards equality and I’m honored to be among them,” Nguyen, the CEO and founder of Rise, said in a press release. “I’m thankful to the team at TIME to bring the work of women leaders to the forefront for our younger generations to learn and be inspired.”