2024 TIME Women of the Year Toast to the Women Who Came Before Them

Artists, actors, activists, and more gathered on Tuesday in West Hollywood, Calif., to celebrate the 2024 TIME Women of the Year—a selection of 12 female trailblazers across industries who are fighting for equality, justice, and a better future around the globe.

The room was lively as guests watched filmmaker Greta Gerwig speak at length about her achievements, including 2023 box office blockbuster Barbie, and upcoming projects before the program ended with a performance by Grammy-award winning singer-songwriter Andra Day.

But before the night came to a close, several honorees were reflective. Four women took the mic to toast to the importance of paying it forward while also looking back, dedicating their achievements to the inspiring figures—the mothers, grandmothers, professional forebears, and under-recognized peers—that played pivotal roles in their success.

“When I started playing tennis at the age of 6, my dad told me ‘you can change the world with your racket,’ and I believed him. I believed him because of the women in my life and the women in this room who showed me that a little girl with big dreams could go on to do great things,” said 2023 U.S. Open winner Coco Gauff.

Here’s what Gauff and some of her fellow Women of the Year had to say:

Ada Limón

Poet laureate Ada Limón dedicated her award to women artists across the world. She read the poem “In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa,” which will be engraved on NASA’s spacecraft that will travel to the second moon of Jupiter, and she called it an “offering” to the “wounded world.”

“We are creatures of constant awe, curious at beauty, at leaf and blossom, at grief and pleasure, sun and shadow,” Limón recited. “And it is not darkness that unites us, not the cold distance of space, but the offering of water, each drop of rain, each rivulet, each pulse, each vein.”

Coco Gauff

Gauff dedicated her award to the monumental figures in her life, naming tennis players Venus and Serena Williams, former First Lady Michelle Obama, and her grandmother, who she says was the first Black woman to integrate the Delray Beach school system in Florida, as inspirations.

“Last December, I was given the honor of being the Grand Marshal of the Delray Beach holiday parade. Riding through the parade, it hit me that 63 years ago, my grandmother had to fight for girls like me to even have a fair education,” Gauff, 19, said, in reference to the racial integration of U.S. public schools that took place in the 60s. “Now, generations later, I’m able to make my own impact on that same city, but only because of what she accomplished.”

Gauff ended her speech by encouraging women to dream big, reflecting on her win last year.

“Our impact is strongest when we work together. Thank you for inspiring me. Thank you for believing in me and thank you for showing me that the sky’s the limit.”

Nadia Murad

Human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Nadia Murad honored the brave women in her rural Iraqi town for advocating for change for themselves, their families, and loved ones.

“Growing up, I didn’t know what a feminist was. Now I see that I was surrounded by them,” she said. “Women who didn’t have the chance to go to school themselves, but who pushed every day for better education, for more equality, for more recognition in the village. Who dedicated themselves to making sure their children’s lives would be better than theirs. Women like my mother who left an unhappy marriage and raised eleven children on her own.”

Taraji P. Henson

Actress, entrepreneur, activist, and producer Taraji P. Henson began her toast discussing the need to “shine light in the dark places,” which she has tried to do throughout her career as an entertainer.

That doesn’t mean that someone has to abide by the rules in order to create good energy in the world, the four-time Emmy award-winner reminded the crowd.

“What I learned as I grew older, from all of my light-bearing predecessors, is when to fall out of line,” Henson said, citing “Black women leading the way to freedom from the swampy terrains of the south, to women organizing countless movements for equality and our rights.”

Henson was recognized among this year’s TIME Women of the Year for speaking out about her own experiences with pay inequity as indicative of a greater problem in Hollywood. “To my fellow recipients, congratulations. It’s an honor to share this space with you,” she said.

“Let’s continue to light the pathway for every human to access their inherent right to safety, belonging, and dignity. Keep setting the world on fire with your light!”

TIME Women of the Year was sponsored by P&G, Rolex, Ray Ban-Meta, Donna Karan New York, FIJI Water, Campari, and Mattel.

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