💪 International Women's Day & 10 Years of The Female Lead
Plus: ✍️ Career advice 🤷♀️ Vanishing women 🤩 Positive news
Welcome to a special issue of Take The Lead, our fortnightly newsletter. This week we are celebrating a decade of The Female Lead ahead of International Women’s Day.
A message from Edwina Dunn, OBE, founder of The Female Lead:
“Ten years ago, when I published my first book — The Female Lead: Women Shaping the World — I had no idea that our mission was only just beginning. What started as a single act of storytelling has grown into something far greater than I could have imagined.
In the decade since, we have published thousands of interviews, articles and stories, and built a vibrant, engaged online community that continues to grow every year. Today, we reach an audience of nine million. Nine million women who trust our voice, who pay attention to the myths we challenge and the truths we bring to light.
That trust is not taken lightly. It is the foundation of everything we do — and it is what makes The Female Lead a movement capable of driving real, lasting impact.
When we began, our focus was clear: create rich, diverse role models so that girls and women everywhere could see themselves reflected in the world. That purpose hasn't changed. But our ambition has grown.
In the years ahead, we will continue to work with game-changing leaders and organisations who respect our mission and recognise our community as a rich source of cultural insight. The world is changing rapidly, and The Female Lead is at the centre of that change. Thank you for being part of it.”
To mark a decade of The Female Lead, here’s 10 of our articles and interviews tackling the topics that matter to YOU.
She refused anonymity. She faced 51 men in court. And she chose to make them the ones who should feel shame. As Gisèle Pelicot launched her book A Hymn to Life in the UK, The Female Lead heard her speak in her own words – about chemical submission, family trauma and the urgency to address violence against women.
For more than three decades, Christina Lamb has reported from the world’s most dangerous conflicts - from Afghanistan to Ukraine - surviving ambushes, gunfire and front-line combat. But it isn’t the near-death moments that define her career. In this interview, the chief foreign correspondent of The Sunday Times reflects on the story that has stayed with her most: how sexual violence is used not as a by-product of war, but as one of its most brutal weapons.
Plus, we recently sat down with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to talk about the UK government’s violence against women and girls strategy, the Epstein Files and influence of Andrew Tate on boys and young men.
Enjoy this issue, share it with the women in your life who would love it too, and reply directly to let us know what you think.
You can also catch up on our most recent full newsletter here.
The Female Lead Team
6 good news stories for women you might have missed
There is no shortage of reasons to feel exhausted by the news cycle. It can be hard enough being a woman without also scrolling through a daily buffet of rights rolled back, voices shouted down and y…
Where have all the women gone?
It’s 2026. The fight for gender equality in the workplace - equal access to opportunities, resources, pay and quashing biases - is exhausting and quite frankly, boringly repetitive. And looking at re…
“They should be the ones to hang their heads in shame, not me”
Gisèle Pelicot’s story horrified and inspired millions of women around the world when she waived her right to anonymity as the victim in the French rape case in 2024. Between 2011 and 2020, Gisèle ha…
Sir Keir Starmer talks to The Female Lead: "We have to call out misogyny"
In an exclusive interview, The Female Lead sat down with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to discuss the announcement of a new law which demands tech companies detect and remove intimate images shared…
"I have reported on every major war of the last 30 years. This is what haunts me the most"
Christina Lamb has spent more than three decades reporting from wars most people know only through headlines: Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Ukraine. She has survived moments that, by an…
📚 10 International Women’s Day Books For Your Shelf
From essential feminist reading to the most recent best-selling titles tackling sexism and misogyny, here are just some of the books you can delve into for knowledge, inspiration and empowerment…
We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Bimbo by Ashley James
Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez
The New Age of Sexism: How the AI Revolution is Reinventing Misogyny by Laura Bates
Normal Women: 900 Years of Making History by Philippa Gregory
The Second Sex by Simone De Beauvoir
She Wanted More: Reimagine your future and live by your rules by Poorna Bell
Feminist History for Every Day of the Year by Kate Mosse
The Othered Woman: How White Feminism Harms Muslim Women by Shahed Ezaydi
The Female Lead: We Rise by Lifting Others by Edwina Dunn OBE
Our global history is full of passionate, angry, and strong women who have paved the way for us today. Ahead of International Women's Day, here are ten protests that women have led around the world which changed the lives of countless others...
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In the last 10 years, we have given access to books and teaching materials to 2.5 million students in 25,000 schools around the world. We carry out research that reframes our understanding of women’s experience, such as our Fulfilment Finder survey which reveals what matters most to women at different life stages. It has now been completed by 150,000 women globally.
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Congratulations on ten years! 🥂