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| Meryl Streep (photographed by Nicolas Guerin) |
The starting point for the 2018 Incredible Women list was the #MeToo movement that erupted last October, when sexual-misconduct revelations in the film, fashion and other industries broke. This was an extraordinary catalyst for change.
"We are looking at a fast-changing world, where women are not only less afraid to speak out and challenge the status quo, but are also effecting real change both in the workplace and society as a whole," says PORTER Magazine editor-in-chief Lucy Yeomans.
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| Protestors at the Women’s March in Washington, D.C. (Via PORTER Magazine) |
This sense of bravery, strength and purpose inspired this list's theme "One Year Stronger", which champions the women who have taken action and spoken out – whether about sexual abuse, gender equality, gun control or equal pay – in an unprecedented show of force and intent.
The list opens with a special nod to the 300 women behind Time's Up, including Reese Witherspoon, Jessica Chastain and Ashley Judd. Other leading global heroines featured include: Michelle Obama, Meghan Markle, Frances McDormand, Oprah Winfrey and journalists Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor, who broke the Harvey Weinstein story in The New York Times.
PORTER Magazine also commissioned four Incredible Women to write open letters, including Meryl Streep, who pens why we need journalists now more than ever:
"We need to protect, defend and thank the current crop of journalists around the world, because they, their scruples and their principles are the front-line defense of free and informed people.
Speaking up, with your name and face on your words, is a daunting prospect. A famous study found that, for a quarter of the American population, fear of public speaking beat their fear of drowning, needles, snakes, heights or clowns. Scarier than clowns!? The study was conducted before the advent of the internet; now, anonymity allows the timid to hurl falsehood and invective as if they were swinging nunchucks, hitting and hurting without fear of attribution (or retribution)… Death threats are the new normal. Armed escorts for the press could be the next new thing..."
