Wow, it’s been an impressive week for women athletes!  Specifically, the amazing performance of the US Women’s Soccer team, who won the World Cup.  It got me thinking about the amazing women we are fortunate enough to have inspired us and to set great examples for our children (regardless of their gender).  I thought it would be fun to discuss the most influential and inspirational women.  Since that is a pretty big group,  I thought I’d focus this post on the most inspirational professional women.

What do you think? Will it be fun or what?!

For this discussion, I will define professional as “any person who earns their living from a specified professional activity.”  So, I do not include, for example, humanitarians, on this list.  Not to say they aren’t inspirational, but for this post, I’m focused just on women who inspire because of their professional careers.

OK, can we just get to it already?!

Wow, you certainly had your coffee, didn’t you?  Just one more point.  This post focuses on US women.  It may be fun to have a worldwide view at a later point.  But, I stuck with what I know best for this.

So, without delay…

The Top 5 Professional Women Who Inspire Me

Marillyn Hewson (CEO of Lockheed Martin)

In case you do not know her, Marillyn is generally accepted as one of the most powerful women in the world.  Many publications, including Fortune and Chief Executive have her in the #1 spot for most influential or powerful leader.

She’s CEO of Lockheed Martin, an aerospace and defense company.  In this capacity, she meets with world leaders to sell them on her company’s products and services, and to ensure that they are happy customers.

Recently, President Trump called her directly after she announced the closure of a plant in Pennsylvania.  So, it’s safe to say, she’s a very prominent person in the international community, and faces a great deal of pressure in that capacity.

But, she hasn’t let that pressure get to her.

Since taking over at Lockheed in 2013, the company’s market cap has doubled (which is no easy feat when you’re one of the largest companies in the world).  She also challenged the status quo at Lockheed and led a courageous cultural overhaul aimed at putting the customer at the center of everything they do.  Not easy to do when you have 100,000 people working for you!

If that’s not enough…

Marillyn’s focus on innovation resulted in the company being awarded the Collier Trophy in 2018 for, “… successfully completing a rapid design, integration, and flight test of critical, lifesaving technology for the worldwide F-35 fleet” (source).  Her work will have a lasting impact on aeronautic safety, which every person in the world will benefit from.

It’s fair to say she has challenged the status quo, has left a lasting impact, and influenced a great number of people (100,000 of them, at least!).

In the research I did on her life, I did not come across any major setbacks or challenges she faced.  Marillyn, please write a biography at one point so we can see that you, too, are human and have set backs!  That said, I don’t think you obtain this position, and succeed to the degree Marillyn has without some “stick-with-it-ness.”

 

Carly Fiorina

Carly was the CEO of Hewlett Packard in the early 2000s.  This was before everyone had an Apple product, if you recall.  Yes, there was a time when Apple had the minority market share, hard to believe.  You probably weren’t born yet, but it is a fact.

Carly was the first female CEO of a Forture-20 company.  During her tenure, she oversaw the largest technology sector merger in history when HP acquired Compaq (remember them?).

Wait, in business school we learned that this merger is generally thought of as unsuccessful?

Perhaps.

Wasn’t Carly fired?

I think it’s called “forced resignation.”  Not exactly the same as being “fired” but I see how it’s confusing.

Why is she on this list again?

Because she shows us what Marillyn has not (yet).  Carly persists.

Since her forced resignation, Carly has aimed to launch a political career.  She ran for Senator of California, President, and Vice President (yes, in that order).  She hasn’t quite found her spot in politics yet, but I don’t think she will stop until she does.

Oh, and she is also a breast cancer survivor.  What else can we say about her determination to push through and rise to a challenge?

Carly inspires us to pick ourselves up and “get back on the horse” after a setback.  If you’re feeling down and out, think of Carly’s persistence as inspiration!

 

Serena Williams

Serena is frequently considered one of the best (if the THE best) female tennis players and athletes of all time.  To say the list of her career achievements is “substantial” is an understatement.  However, to me, it is not these achievements that inspire me as much as it is her vulnerability.

Serena is transparent about the challenges she has faced (personally and professionally) as a new mom.  She doesn’t simply share beautiful pictures of her family, and her post-baby body in a bikini 2 week post-partum.  Rather, she has publicly shared the brutal  trade-offs she makes between her career and her family, as all working women must do.  By doing so, I feel she inspires working women to brave these challenges every day.  And, to let go of perfection and do the best job we can at balancing the priorities in our lives.

Serena has shown us that you can be a great mom, and a tremendous professional at the same time.  She illustrates what all working moms need to know:  It may not always be easy, and you may not always feel successful.  But, you’re doing the best you can. 

Thank you, Serena, for inspiring working women everywhere!

 

Madonna

You may recall from this post, that I grew up listening to Madonna.  Her career has spanned the better part of 4 decades.  That alone qualifies her for a top spot as one of the most inspirational professional women!

The list of her achievements includes (source):

• Most successful female artist of all time
• Best-selling female recording artist
• Highest-grossing concert tour of all time
• Best-selling female rock artist of the 20th century

Honestly, this is just a few; the list goes on and on.

Like Serena, it is not just the list of accomplishments that is inspirational.  To me, what makes Madonna inspirational is her consistent ability to challenge the status quo.

Actually, to say that Madonna “challenged the status quo” is perhaps an understatement.  Her risque behavior polarized Americans, many of whom didn’t see a place for her antics in mainstream culture.  As a result, she lost fans, sponsorships, and was (almost) ex-communicated by the Vatican.

However, despite her controversy, she has had a lasting impact on the music industry and the public at large.

Still not convinced?

Did you ever wear these bracelets?

Yes, we can thank Madonna for that, and actually that entire look.  Madonna defined 80s fashion.  I’m not exactly sure we should thank her for that, but you cannot deny Madonna’s ability to get others to follow.

While Madonna’s list of accolades is long (very, very long), she has certainly had some setbacks.  Most notably in her acting career.  Her early films were commercially unsuccessful and she received a fair amount of criticism for her acting (specifically by receiving a Golden Raspberry for Worst Actress in for Shanghai Surprise).

She continued to make movies, some better than others.  She stuck with it and, ultimately, secured the role of Eva Peron in Evita.   For this role, she received overall great reviews and she received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress.

Acting will never be the reason we remember Madonna; it will always be for her music / fashion / controversy.  That said, she worked hard to grow as an actress.  Madonna didn’t let criticism and barriers get in her way.  She persisted.

She’s been tremendously supportive of the LBGTQ community, and was recently awarded at the GLAAD Media Awards with the Advocate for Change award (see here).

Madonna challenged status quo (a lot!!), had a tremendous impact on the music industry, inspired fashion trends across the globe, and overcame many obstacles as it related to her film career.  There is no doubt that Madonna is a source of professional inspiration!

 

Lucille Ball

Please do not tell me you do not know who she is!  I know her revolutionary TV show, I Love Lucy, hasn’t been on television since 1957.  But, it’s still in syndication, which is wildly impressive for a show that is just in black and white.

It may be easy to dismiss Lucille Ball as just an actress.  However, I advocate that she is one of the most influential professional women.

First, she challenged the status quo when it came to the production of I Love Lucy.  She and her husband, Dezi Arnaz, created Desilu Productions and pioneered many “firsts” in the television industry with I Love Lucy, including:

• first scripted television program to be shot on 35mm film (with 3 cameras)
• first scripted show to be filmed in front of a studio audience
• second pregnant female on TV (except they were only allowed to call it “expecting”)
• first show with an ensemble cast

Due to these innovations, I Love Lucy essentially invented the re-run as we know it.  And our Sunday mornings couldn’t be more grateful!

Lucy herself made history when she took over Desilu after her divorce from Arnaz.  In this capacity, she was the first female head of a major TV studio and considered an exceptionally powerful woman.  During her leadership, Desilu produced many hit shows, including Mission:  Impossible and Star Trek (not my favorite, but I admit it is important to many viewers).

For all that she has done to impact the entertainment industry, Ball was awarded he Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George H. W. Bush in 1989.

While we may now see more women in leadership in the entertainment industry, Lucille was the first.  For that, she’s a great source of inspiration!

 

In Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed this post!  Honestly, it was one of the hardest ones to put together.  For great reason…there are a lot of impressive women who have had a big impact in the world.  I didn’t aim for this list to be comprehensive; there are plenty of women I have left out (honestly I stayed clear of politicians just to avoid the controversy).

What about you? I’d love to hear which professional women inspire you.  Write the professional women who inspire you most in the comments below.

If you enjoyed this post, check out:

• How do Fortune’s Most Powerful Women dress for success?
• I want to give Serena Williams a hug (and how to support new moms at work)
• How do Fortune’s 40 Under 40 Women Dress for Success?

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