International Women’s Day is just around the corner, and it’s worth remembering that none of us arrived here alone – there were women speaking up who helped us get here.

Every right we exercise, every room we walk into, every moment we speak and expect to be heard, someone came before us and made that possible. Women who pushed, insisted, and refused to be quiet until the world had no choice but to listen.

Let’s look at just a few that I found remarkable.

Nanye’hi chose diplomacy and peace at a time when war would have been the easier, more applauded path. Ida B. Wells wrote with such precision and moral clarity that injustice could no longer hide in the shadows. Rose Schneiderman stood before a grieving crowd after the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire and demanded that workers’ lives be treated with dignity. And Mary Robinson took the language of human rights and carried it onto the global stage with unmistakable conviction.

And these women didn’t just speak – they helped build the floor we are standing on.

Fashion too has its share of formidable voices.

Vivienne Westwood understood that clothing could carry a political message. Long before sustainability became a corporate talking point, she used fashion as a platform to question power, consumption, and environmental destruction. And Katharine Hamnett demonstrated how powerful a simple garment can be when worn with intent. When she met Margaret Thatcher in a T-shirt reading “58% DON’T WANT PERSHING,” she turned a single photograph into a political statement that still circulates decades later.

Both women understood something important: the most subversive thing you can sometimes do in a room full of power is decide exactly what you wear into it.

And yet, when we list history’s great speakers, its visionaries, its world-changers, how many of these women do we mention? How often do we trace our own confidence back to theirs?

Perhaps it’s time we did. Not simply by remembering their names, but by studying their words, acknowledging their courage, and recognising that we are the continuation of what they began.

This International Women’s Day, take a moment to honour the women who came before us, and carry their voices forward.

Let’s never take for granted that we can speak boldly and be heard – because so many before us refused to remain silent.

And also, this International Women’s Day, speak about those that came before us, about yourself, about the women that carry you or that you carry. Don’t forget you too are paving the way for women.

More on those amazing powerful women throughout history at
speakingwhilefemale.co