Your most-loved articles of 2024

💪 CEO tips 🩸 gynae health 🎬 Judi Dench

In a special issue of The Female Lead’s Take The Lead newsletter, we’re taking a moment to reflect on the stories, voices, and insights that have inspired us - and you - on our platform over the past year.

From eye-opening health conversations to viral moments, it’s been a year of celebrating and empowering women across our six content pillars: health, self, society, work, money and relationships.

There isn’t much we haven’t covered, but you particularly loved learning about the experience of early menopause, leadership advice from trailblazing female CEOs, and Judi Dench’s hope to live to 100.

You have also been moved by Saoirse Ronan’s unforgettable appearance on The Graham Norton Show and Hannah Waddingham’s red carpet clapback.

Thank you for joining us. Your support helps us continue our groundbreaking research, work with girls in schools, and uplifting content for women around the world.

Please consider becoming a paid supporter for a monthly donation of £3.50/$4 if you are able to.

Here are the pieces that sparked conversations and inspired action in 2024.

The Female Lead team

---

HEALTH

TV presenter Philippa Forrester: My early menopause went undiagnosed for more than a decade

5 gynaecological symptoms never to ignore

Women are angry. And it's making us ill.

TV presenter Cherry Healey: Perimenopause anxiety made me ‘slightly think I was going mad’

SOCIETY

Saoirse Ronan: the reaction to my viral Graham Norton clip was 'wild'

All I wanted was an AI image of a man cleaning a toilet

Hannah Waddingham tells off photographer on Olivier Awards red carpet

Why You Should Be a ‘Disobedient’ Woman

SELF

Judi Dench regrets not having six children and ‘hopes’ she will live to 100

When are you ‘too old’ to follow your dreams?

Weird Barbie actor Kate McKinnon: Why I came off social media 7 years ago

Selena Gomez cries as Miranda Hart thanks her for being an inspiration

WORK

Female leaders and CEOs on the one piece of advice they would give young women

Lily Allen: Creating foot content on OnlyFans has been "empowering"

These are the 102 big companies stepping up on women's equality in the UK

Bill Nighy: Female IVF scientist airbrushed from history 'because she didn’t have a penis'

RELATIONSHIPS

Tips for improving your relationship with yourself

As Kate Garraway returns to Good Morning Britain – when is the right time to return to work after bereavement?

Actor Jill Halfpenny on the ‘barrage’ of ‘guilt and shame’ after the death of her partner

Sexual choking has become popular – but that doesn’t mean it’s wanted

MONEY

Financial Feminism in Four Steps

Expert tips to help women narrow the pensions gender gap

5 ways to stretch your budget further in January

Expert tips to kickstart good money habits at every life stage

---

Become a paid supporter

The Female Lead is a charity on a mission to empower women.

In the last 8 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.

We can’t run the charity without your support.

For just £3.50 a month or £25 a year, you can make a huge difference.

Your donations allow us to continue to provide teaching resources and education to girls and women around the world, conduct groundbreaking research, and share science and stories online.

By pledging to make a donation, you get a host of other benefits like:

• Access to our full archive of content on everything from advice from CEOs, to early menopause, to the brain impact of the mental load

• Get the first look at our research reports busting myths around women

• A virtual supporter badge to share and display online