--- title: How TIME Chose the 2023 Women of the Year description: This year's list features 12 individuals from across the globe who have made significant impact in trying to build a more equal world. canonical: https://time.com/6259412/how-time-chose-women-of-the-year-2023/ author: Naina Bajekal article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2023-03-02T11:00:28.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:49:44.817Z article:section: Ideas og:title: How We Chose the 2023 Women of the Year og:description: This year's list features 12 leaders who are working to build a more equal world og:url: https://time.com/6259412/how-time-chose-women-of-the-year-2023/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8dac1874b5a4651f/698a3ac4db2987bf83268c5d/WOTY-covers1.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1600 og:image:height: 900 og:image:alt: WOTY-covers1 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How We Chose the 2023 Women of the Year twitter:description: This year's list features 12 leaders who are working to build a more equal world twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8dac1874b5a4651f/698a3ac4db2987bf83268c5d/WOTY-covers1.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How We Chose the 2023 Women of the Year > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Inside TIME: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Inside TIME is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. A closer look at TIME's latest cover and our most compelling stories. Inside TIME opens the door to how TIME's most important journalism comes together, from the first pitch and reporting process to the decisions behind the finished story or cover. Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs takes readers inside the newsroom, revealing the journalists, ideas and editorial choices behind the stories shaping the global conversation. 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It explains how TIME's journalism is made, from the first pitch through the editorial decisions behind a finished story or cover. #### How can I read about how TIME chooses its covers? Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ## Video: Women of the Year | Masih Alinejad [Watch (HLS stream): Women of the Year | Masih Alinejad](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/EiaJleoL.m3u8) (4:12)  _Published 2023-03-02. Iranian Dissident Masih Alinejad Won't Be Silenced_ by [Naina Bajekal](https://time.com/author/naina-bajekal/) and [Lucy Feldman](https://time.com/author/lucy-feldman/) Mar 2, 2023 11:00 AM UTC  Ayisha Siddiqa and Cate Blanchett appear on the cover for TIME's 2023 Women of the Year list Ayisha Siddiqa and Cate Blanchett appear on the cover for TIME's 2023 Women of the Year list Photographs by Josefina Santos (Siddiqa) and Yana Yatsuk (Blanchett) for TIME by [Naina Bajekal](https://time.com/author/naina-bajekal/) and [Lucy Feldman](https://time.com/author/lucy-feldman/) Mar 2, 2023 11:00 AM UTC A defining project at TIME is the study of influence—who has it, what form it takes, and what it means to wield it. Our annual [Women of the Year list](https://time.com/collection/women-of-the-year/), published on March 2, examines the most uplifting form of influence by spotlighting leaders who are using their voices to fight for a more equal world. The 12 women featured on this year’s list come from across the globe and have made significant impact in their respective communities and fields, from activism and government to sports and the arts. Many of them have faced immense challenges that inspired them to push for change. [Anielle Franco](https://time.com/collection/women-of-the-year/6257846/anielle-franco/) turned to politics after her sister Marielle, a city councilor in Rio de Janeiro who campaigned against police violence and corruption, was assassinated in 2018\. Now, as Minister for Racial Equality in Brazil’s new government, she is channeling her grief into action. “I lost my fear when they killed my sister,” Franco says. “Now I fight for something much bigger than myself.” Leaders around the world are doing the same. In Iran, women have been [protesting for months](https://time.com/6232168/women-led-protests-iran-future/) against the mandatory hijab—and much more—in a profound threat to the regime led by Ayatollah Khamenei. “Women of Iran are his biggest enemy,” says [Masih Alinejad](https://time.com/collection/women-of-the-year/6259111/masih-alinejad/), a journalist who has lived in exile in the U.S. since 2009\. After exposing corruption in her home country, she has been the target of at least two regime-backed kidnapping and assassination plots. Still, she refuses to stay silent. In Ukraine, where [Olena Shevchenko](https://time.com/collection/women-of-the-year/6257849/olena-shevchenko/) has spent years advocating for women’s and LGBTQI rights, Russia’s war has made marginalized groups even more vulnerable and Shevchenko’s work all the more urgent. In Pakistan, [Ayisha Siddiqa](https://time.com/collection/women-of-the-year/6259119/Ayisha-Siddiqa/), who appears on one of our covers, saw the devastating effects of climate change on her community and was inspired to speak up, delivering a powerful speech at November’s U.N. Climate Conference in Egypt on the urgency of climate justice. In Mexico, the feminist activist [Véronica Cruz Sánchez](https://time.com/collection/women-of-the-year/6259106/veronica-cruz-sanchez/) has long helped women safely navigate abortion restrictions and is now turning her attention north, supporting American women affected by the [overturning of _Roe v. Wade_](https://time.com/6242277/abortion-funds-states/) last summer. Cruz is not the only leader on this year’s Women of the Year list who is advocating abortion rights: indie-rock musician [Phoebe Bridgers](https://time.com/collection/women-of-the-year/6259159/phoebe-bridgers-interview/), who has long blended her art with activism, came forward last year to share that she’d had an abortion. In an interview, she spoke about the value of transparency, a key aspect of her songwriting. “The more honest I am,” she says, “the world just keeps opening up for me.” Also making a difference in the arts is actor [Cate Blanchett](https://time.com/collection/women-of-the-year/6259177/cate-blanchett/), one of this year’s cover stars and a 2023 Academy Award nominee, who unpacks the ways in which she, as a leader in Hollywood, is fighting for change. Blanchett’s prowess in front of the camera is itself a testament to the multitudes that women contain. As [Lydia Tár](https://time.com/6210593/tar-review/), the eponymous protagonist of one of the year’s most celebrated films, Blanchett is both spectacular and reprehensible. “We are brave, we are noble, we are generous, we are collaborative,” Blanchett says. “But we are also the dark side of that, because women are complex beings.” Blanchett, Bridgers, Siddiqa, and many more will join us on March 8, International Women’s Day, for our annual Women of the Year gala in Los Angeles. We’re thrilled to be able to convene such inspiring leaders, to celebrate their visions for a better future, and to highlight the remarkable influence that these women have on the world. ## Transcript Biryani and regime kick me out from Iran but they couldn't take Iran out of me through my social media. I am there. Every day we are invisible. If we don't cover ourselves, we don't exist with through my social media people take their visibility back. I'm a journalist activists and an ulcer social media is like my weapon, you know? Because when you turn on the TV or you see it just women in hijab, do you see the Iran that the Iranian regime wants you to say, but go on social media that statue image of Iran. You see, women unveil, you see women, dancing? Singing is he men and women shoulder to shoulder without any censorship. I made mini documentaries about ordinary women through my social media. When they run into him killed innocent protesters, the mothers didn't know what to do. I didn't do anything wrong. I just told them you can give you a camera like this. I talked to them and I told them this is how you can be your own media, then all the mainstream media going to follow your page, your Instagram or social media, just go and check the hashtag my camera is my weapon. You will see. That's how women were challenging morality police in the hand of moral policing the streets with shouting loudly. I'm not going to cover myself with a wide Wednesday's fifteen-year-old girl. 16 year old girl they were shouting that we don't want compulsory a job. We deserve to have lots for freedom to be hurt. That's why I I created another hashtag for the women of the Middle East, which is called. Let us talk read a woman of Iran and Afghanistan. We deserve to be hurt. Now, sitting here, I'm a master criminal in the eyes of Iranian regime because I show my hair. I have too much, boys, and loud. I sing, I dance. I ride a bicycle. I shake hands with men. I go to Stadium. So I'm a master criminal in the eyes of the mullahs in Iran. For women off of white Wednesdays or in prison right now. I feel guilty. I mean, because all the people around me, maybe around me, politicians everyone saying that, don't you feel guilty that these young women are going to prison? Just because you called on women to remove their job. I did I was going to shut down the campaign. What happened immediately, sabol's mother. We also man's mother took videos of themselves. White head scarf and saying. Now we are the voice of our daughters and I was like, Wendy's mother's. Now joining the Young Generation, then why should I stopped the campaign? These are like, Rosa Parks of Iran, you know. These are like women suffragists, and that's why I'm not going to feel guilty lashes. Women should feel guilty, those stupid women in prison should feel guilty. 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