The arts are well represented on Time magazine’s annual Women of the Year list, with the class of ’24 including actor, writer and director Greta Gerwig, actor Taraji P. Henson and singer, songwriter and actor Andra Day.
The list of 12 women was announced this morning. Also included on the roster tennis player Coco Gauff; Global CEO of Chanel Leena Nair; co-founder and leader of the Israeli movement Women Wage Peace Yael Admi; founder and director of Women of the Sun Reem Hajajreh; president and chairwoman of nonprofit Nadia’s Initiative Nadia Murad; medical scientist and professor of research on hyperemesis gravidarum Marlena Fejzo; founder and executive director of The Chisholm Legacy Project Jacqui Patterson; poet Ada Limón; and economic historian and labor economist Claudia Goldin.
The Time list is designed to recognize “extraordinary leaders working toward a more equal world.”
Regarding Barbie director Gerwig, who is featured on the cover of the magazine’s Women of the Year issue, Time’s West Coast editor Sam Lansky said, “Gerwig’s story is as much about commerce as it is about art: Her films are humane, emotional, and playful; she is the only director in history to have their first three solo feature films nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars.
“Yet her movies also clean up at the box office,” he continued, adding, “her semi autobiographical solo directorial debut, Lady Bird, grossed $79 million against a $10 million budget; her next, an adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s beloved Little Women, was budgeted at $40 million and took in $231 million—both extraordinary returns on investment. These commercial triumphs reflect how her work resonates in the culture, particularly among women and girls, whose emotional lives and ambitions Gerwig explores in her films. But to make her success about gender would be to diminish how her work also transcends its boundaries.”
Time correspondent Andrew R. Chow described The Color Purple‘s Henson as “one of Hollywood’s most electric personalities and prolific stars” who “has been pulling back the curtain, sharing her frustration and heartbreak as a Black woman in the industry.”
“In December,” Chow writes, “she broke down in tears during an interview with Gayle King over her struggle to be paid fairly. Her words sparked an outpouring of affirmation and a larger dialogue about the pervasive pay gap, both in and outside of Hollywood. A 2019 study found that female stars generally earned $1.1 million less than male stars with similar experience. A 2023 Pew study found that nationwide, Black women earned 70% as much as white men. Despite years of success and accolades, Henson says she still receives lowball offers at every turn—and this for a woman who has breached the upper echelon of Hollywood, who has received nominations for an Oscar and four Emmys over nearly three decades onscreen.”
Regarding Day, Time reporter Moises Mendez said the singer “burst onto the scene in 2015 with her song ‘Rise Up,’ a rousing power ballad that earned a Grammy nomination and later became an anthem for Black Lives Matter protests. In 2021, in her first leading role in a feature film, she played one of the most legendary singers of all time in director Lee Daniels’ The United States vs. Billie Holiday, a performance for which she nabbed a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination while the soundtrack took home a Grammy. She has filmed another movie with Daniels, The Deliverance, and one with writer-director Titus Kaphar, Exhibiting Forgiveness, both of which are forthcoming.”
Time will host the third annual invite-only Time Women of the Year Gala on Tuesday, March 5, in Los Angeles. The event will feature appearances and remarks from Women of the Year honorees, the presentation of a Time Earth Award, as well as a special musical performance by Andra Day.
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