The last couple of years have shown us Hollywood’s sinister underbelly with numerous reports of notable actors, directors and producers sexually harassing aspiring actresses and abusing the system with their star power.
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However, thanks to powerful hashtags, city-wide rallies and protests we have reached a time when Celebrities are vocally expressing their feminist views and are speaking for women’s rights and equality in Hollywood.
Here are some of the fiercest of them all,
1.Jessica Chastain
Last year, Chastain’s friend and colleague Octavia Spencer revealed that the actress fought for her to receive equal pay on a project they were doing together, which resulted in Spencer earning five times what she was initially offered.
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“I love that woman because she’s walking the walk and she’s talking the talk,” Spencer said during a Women Breaking Barriers panel at Sundance. We couldn’t have said it any better, ourselves!
2. Emma Watson
No list of feminist celebrities is complete without Ms.Watson. The Harry Potter alum has swapped her wand for activism and rightly deserves her UN Women Goodwill Ambassador title, which she received in 2014.
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“When I gave my UN speech in 2015, so much of what I said was about the idea that being a feminist is simple! Easy! No problem!” she wrote to her book club. “I have since learned that being a feminist is more than a single choice or decision. It’s an interrogation of self. Every time I think I’ve peeled all the layers, there’s another layer to peel.”
3.Anne Hathaway
On International Women’s Day in 2017, she gave a speech pertaining to paid maternity leave, and noted that it’s “not about taking days off work; it is about creating the freedom to define roles, to choose how to invest time, and to establish new, positive cycles of behaviour.”
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We particularly love that Hathaway’s speech doesn’t just focus on maternity leave for women but also providing the same right to men. A key point that many modern-day feminists forget to discuss.
4. Shonda Rhimes
A single glimpse at any of Shonda Rhimes produced T.V shows will easily let you know that she is a proud feminist, who is single-handedly changing the way we see women on television.
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She doesn’t just work to provide in-depth roles, where women aren’t just portrayed as “a pretty face”. While also, striving for the representation of racially diverse and LGBTQ-inclusive storylines. Currently, she is working on a multi-year, multi-million-dollar development deal at Netflix.
5. Reese Witherspoon
We have said it once and we will say it again, Reese Witherspoon’s journey in Hollywood is a remarkable one and her transition from a bubbly Southern blonde to an in-charge and fierce producer is one, we will talk about for years to come.
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“We’re finally hearing each other, and seeing each other, and now locking arms in solidarity with each other, and in solidarity for every woman who doesn’t feel seen, to be finally heard,” she told the New York Times of teaming up with the likes of Shonda Rhimes.
6. Meghan Markle
British royalty has mostly taken a backseat role, whenever the topic of feminism is approached but Meghan Markle changed that. Ever since she became the Duchess of Sussex, she has made it her mission to discuss, talk and work for equal rights.
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One of her first charity initiatives was a cookbook by and for women affected by the Grenfell Tower fire. And in January 2019, she announced her patronage of Smart Works, an organization that helps women re-enter the workforce.
7.Oprah Winfrey
Long-time viewers of the Oprah Show, know that the billionaire talk show host has never been shy about discussing her feminist opinions and has been doing so before it became a “trend”.
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In 2007, she founded the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls, a school in South Africa that provides education and opens doors for “academically gifted girls who come from disadvantaged backgrounds.” The students, in turn, pay it forward and help support their communities.
8.Angelina Jolie
“Equality is not about us all being the same,” she told French Vogue in 2018. “It is about the freedom to make our own choices and live our own lives fully, not at the expense of men, but alongside men. It is not about taking each other down but building each other up.”
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Jolie has spent the recent years, putting her acting career on the back burner and making her philanthropic work, her main focus. She worked with the Council on Foreign Relations and founded the Maddox Jolie-Pitt Foundation.
9.Amandla Stenberg
At just 20, Amandla has done more for the feminist cause than many seasoned celebrities. In 2015, as part of a school project, the Hate U Give star created a viral video called “Don’t Cash Crop My Cornrows,”
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The video investigated the problem of cultural appropriation in the Media and resulted in her becoming a well-known social activist and an influential voice in the Black and LGBTQ+ communities.
10. Mariska Hargitay
Much like her on-screen character of Olivia Benson, Mariska is a fighter who is determined to help victims of sexual abuse and violence. She discussed that while preparing for her role, she was made aware of the deplorable situation of domestic laws and had to do something.
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She started the Joyful Heart Foundation, which aims to “transform society’s response to sexual assault, domestic violence, and child abuse; support survivors’ healing, and end this violence forever.”
11.Amy Poehler
With a smile and a goofy joke, Amy has steadily worked for equality in Hollywood for decades. From producing women-led projects like Broad City to amplifying female voices through her organization, the star has put her money where her mouth is.
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In an interview in 2013, she said that being a feminist is “just who I am, in the same way, that I’m a woman, or I’m 5’2″ or whatever.” Poehler, sure makes it look easy, doable and the only way to move forward, as it should be.
12. Jennifer Lopez
Is there anything that this woman can’t do? We don’t think so. Apart from being a singer, dancer, actress, T.V producer, director and Mom, Jennifer is also a proud feminist. Back in 2009, the multi-talented star teamed up with her sister Lynda to start the Lopez Family Foundation, which aims to improve access to quality health care services and education for women and children.
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“Becoming a mother has made me more aware of the struggles of women and children throughout the world,” she said “While some progress has been made, there is still a lot more work that needs to be done for gender equality and universal access to medical care”
13. Lili Reinhart
Being the face of Young Hollywood, Lili has used her star power to speak against the damaging double standards women face in Hollywood, calling out magazines who unrealistically Photo shoppe her images to fighting back against the toxic culture of body-shaming.
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“I think about when I have kids in the future,” she said in a speech at Glamour’s 2018 Women of the Year summit. “Will my daughter be self-conscious about gaining weight? Will she feel the need to explain her body or justify it to anyone as it changes? ”
14.Emma Thompson
“I am well aware that centuries of entitlement to women’s bodies, whether they like it or not, is not going to change overnight. Or in a year,” Thompson wrote in an open letter for L.A Times.
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She is a self-proclaimed radical feminist and recently quit the animated film Luck after the company hired, John Lasseter, an animator who was fired from Pixar animations over sexual harassment allegations.
15.Ellen Pompeo
The Grey’s Anatomy star has been known to wield her star power in the industry to help out other women, and particularly women of colour, for whom representation and equal pay remain more difficult to achieve.
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“As Caucasian people, it’s our job, it’s our task,” she said in one memorable panel in 2018. “It’s our responsibility to make sure that we speak up in every single room we walk into. … It’s our job because we’ve created the problem.”
16.Mindy Kaling
Kaling has always been brutally honest with her feelings about everything. From her treatment as a woman of colour to her experience of casual body-shaming by the media. “I was not someone who should have the life I have now, and yet I do,” she said in a commencement speech at Dartmouth in 2018. “I was sitting in the chair you are literally sitting in right now and I just whispered, ‘Why not me?'”
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Kaling has released two comedic memoirs; created and starred in her own successful sitcom, The Mindy Project; and appeared on the big screen in movies including Ocean’s 8 and A Wrinkle in Time. She also wrote the upcoming feminist comedy Late Night, starring another woman on our list, Emma Thompson.
17. Kerry Washington
There is something in the waters in Shondaland. Kerry Washington is a real-life gladiator who frequently discusses issues regarding equal-pay, reproductive rights, education, affordable health care, and domestic violence.
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“The truth is, actors are activists no matter what, and we embody the worth and humanity of all people,” she said at the 2017 SAG Awards, in response to critics saying actors should stick to acting and not get political. We think these “critics” are just scared that actors have the ability to bring about real change and are more threatened, than anything.
18. Beyonce
How can we not add Beyonce to our list, who once had the word Feminist in Flashing LED Lights lit behind her, during an iconic VMA performance? While Beyonce doesn’t give any vocal speeches for feminism, it is clear to see that she is one.
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Much and more of her music includes lyrics which have helped portray women in a strengthening light, reminding everyone that Who run the world? Girls. And, in our opinion, specifically Beyonce.
19.Alicia Keys
After creating a feminist anthem, Girl On Fire in 2012, Alicia received the Amnesty International’s Ambassador of Conscience Award for her activism. This was just the start of her work and later she declared that she was ditching makeup for all public events.
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“I don’t want to cover up anymore,” she wrote in a Lenny Letter at the time. “Not my face, not my mind, not my soul, not my thoughts, not my dreams, not my struggles, not my emotional growth. Nothing.”
20. Ariana Grande
Grande became one of the first pop stars to publically call out another industry colleague for their unsolicited and degrading opinions when she shut down Piers Morgan’s sexist tweet.
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She also spent much of 2018 speaking out against people who blamed her for the behaviour of her ex-boyfriends — and we have a feeling that year will only bring more empowering messages from the young singer.