Women have increasingly demanded more recognition for the art they produce. They say the work they create is often passed by because of their gender. Actress Natalie Portman even stated at the 2018 Golden Globes when she presented the award for Best Director, “Here are the all-male nominees.”  

One 2019 Oscar-nominated film made by a female director, Kasi Lemmons, is Harriet, a biopic about Harriet Tubman, played by Cynthia Erivo, who fled from slavery and brought many others to their own freedom. The movie itself was somewhat overlooked by major awards, being nominated but not winning in any categories. 

Additionally, The Farewell is an autobiographical film by Lulu Wang.  The film was nominated for two Golden Globes: Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, which it won, and Best Motion Picture – Foreign Language. It received an overall score of a 98 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.  The film is about a Chinese family who finds out that their grandmother is about to pass. They keep her in the dark as they have a wedding to gather everyone before she dies.  

Lady Gaga is another famous artist who writes and produces her own music. She said in an interview with Zane Lowe, “I play a lot of instruments, I write my own music. I spend hours and hours a day in the studio, I’m a producer, I’m a writer. What I do is different.”  She’s written many songs that have changed the world and even has her own Netflix documentary Five Foot Two. She did an amazing Super Bowl half-time show in 2017, is very successful and is sure to be a big name in music for many years to come.

Claire Boucher, known as Grimes, is a Canadian musician with many different styles, including dream pop, R&B, electronic music and hip hop. On Twitter, she posted, “I’m tired of men who aren’t professional or even accomplished musicians continually offering to ‘help me out’ (without being asked), as if I did this by accident and I’m gonna flounder without them. Or as if the fact that I’m a woman makes me incapable of using technology. I have never seen this kind of thing happen to any of my male peers.” Grimes has created a genre of her own and learned new instruments to make her sound unique.  She is different, speaks her mind and is someone who many young women should look up to.

All of these women are unique in their own ways.  All of them came up with their ideas independently and stood against the ideals of men in their areas of work.  Each of them are worth paying attention to for many years to come.