Women are a force to be reckoned with in organizations, universities and boardrooms across the globe. However, at the start of 2023, women were leading only around 10% of Fortune 500 companies. Increasing educational, internship and mentorship opportunities for women would help improve this statistic. 

Ahead, we dive into the characteristics of a great female leader. We will also highlight impactful women of color in leadership, female leaders in tech and historical female leaders. 

What Defines a Great Leader?

Great leaders consistently display emotional intelligence, tenacity, resilience, flexibility and intuition. With these traits, they are also dynamic and influential female role models. Great leaders also value collaboration, innovation and inclusivity. They strive to uplift organizations and communities worldwide through their entrepreneurial, educational, philanthropic and civil advocacy efforts. Below, we spotlight seven of these outstanding female leaders.

Inspirational Women of Color in Leadership

Angela Davis

Angela Davis is a civil rights leader, social justice activist and educator. As a teen, she volunteered for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and was an active Black Panther. Davis earned a degree from Brandeis University, graduating magna cum laude. She went on to earn a master’s degree at the University of California, San Diego in 1968. She then received her Ph.D. from Humboldt University, Berlin. 

Davis is a founding member of Critical Resistance, which seeks to eliminate the prison industrial complex. She has written and published several books, including “Angela Davis: An Autobiography” (1974), “Women, Race, & Class” (1981) and “Are Prisons Obsolete” (2003).

Davis has taught at the University of California at Santa Cruz as a Distinguished Professor Emerita of the History of Consciousness. She previously was a philosophy professor at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and UC Presidential Chair in African American and Feminist Studies.

Serena Williams

Tennis pro and Olympic gold medalist Serena Williams is also an author, philanthropist, entrepreneur, designer and venture capital firm founder. Raised in Compton, CA, and later Florida, Williams would go on to compete in the Olympic Games, the U.S. Open, Wimbledon and beyond.

Although Williams retired from tennis in 2022, she is active in other professional endeavors. She has launched several businesses, including Serena Ventures, a venture capital firm that invests in tech companies that are Black- or women-owned or led. She also founded Nine Two Six Productions, Will Perform and Wyn Beauty. And, she is an investor in the Miami Dolphins, a National Football League team.

In addition, she serves on the board of the Billie Jean King Leadership Initiative and is a UNICEF International Goodwill Ambassador. 

Amanda Koonjbeharry

Entrepreneur Amanda Koonjbeharry was one of Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal’s 2018 40 Under 40 honorees. She is the founder of In Sisterhood, We Brunch. This brunch series helps elevate women of color professionals. She also founded She Prospers, We Prosper (SPWP). SPWP is an inclusive community networking initiative built to support women.

Koonjbeharry has experience in the renewable energy field as a Public Affairs Manager. She previously worked to guide and strengthen women of color through coaching at Vision Investment. She held the position of Director of Public Policy at Citizens League from 2019 – 2021. There, she oversaw the organization’s civic leadership efforts, helped serve the aging population of Minnesota and more.

Koonjbeharry holds dual master’s degrees in social work and public policy from the University of Minnesota. She has served on the board for several organizations, including Domestic Abuse Project, Avenues for Youth and Family Housing Fund.

Female Leaders in Tech

Dr. Lisa Su

Dr. Lisa Su is the Chair and CEO of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). In this position, Dr. Su helps deliver cutting-edge solutions for computing and artificial intelligence. She previously served as the firm’s President and CEO and Senior Vice President and General Manager of Global Business Units. Dr. Su also held executive leadership roles at Freescale Semiconductor and IBM. In addition, she was a member of the technical staff at Texas Instruments. 

Dr. Su is a member of the American Academy of Arts & Science and was named one of the TIME100 Most Influential People in AI for 2024. She was also recognized as Chief Executive Magazine’s 2024 CEO Of The Year, on the 2023 Forbes World’s Most Powerful Women list and made the 2023 The MarketWatch50 list. Dr. Su was also selected for the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (“PCAST”) by President Joseph R. Biden Jr. 

Dr. Su earned bachelor’s, master’s and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Reshma Saujani

Founder, New York Times Best Selling author and speaker Reshma Saujani created the non-profit Girls Who Code. Girls Who Code helps to break barriers and addresses the gender gap in technology. The organization provides AI curriculum to students across the U.S.   

She founded the organization after she observed a lack of women and girls in STEM classrooms. In total, the organization has fostered more than 650,000 girls, women and non-binary individuals. Saujani is also the Founder and CEO of Moms First (formally named Marshall Plan for Moms). Moms First is a movement that supports mothers to gain equal pay, child care and paid leave.

She gave the thought-provoking talk “Teach girls bravery, not perfection,” at a TED conference. Saujani is a graduate of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Harvard Kennedy School and Yale Law School.

Famous Female Leaders in History

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (also known as R.B.G) was the second woman to serve on the Supreme Court. Bader Ginsburg attended Cornell University for her undergraduate studies. She started law school at Harvard, but finished her law degree at Columbia Law School. Unfortunately, during her post-collegiate academic journey, Bader Ginsburg encountered gender discrimination. 

She then went on to become a law clerk for the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Later, Bader Ginsburg would hold the position of Professor of Law at both Rutgers University School of Law and Columbia Law School. 

From 1980 – 1993, she served as a judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. In 1993, Bader Ginsburg was sworn in as a Supreme Court justice. She served on the highest court in the land until her passing in 2020.

She was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 2002. Bader Ginsberg was named to the Forbes’ 100 Most Powerful Women list for eight consecutive years, from 2004 to 2011. She was also the recipient of the Berggruen Prize for Philosophy & Culture and the National Constitution Center’s Liberty Medal.

Malala Yousafzai

Education activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai was recognized with the renowned award in 2014 at the age of 17 for her fight for every child to obtain an education. In Pakistan, education for girls was highly restricted and Yousafzai protested the restrictions. Because she opposed these barriers, her life was endangered.

As a result, Yousafzai and her father founded the Malala Fund in 2013 to demonstrate the impact female education can have on society. Yousafzai was named one of TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2013. In addition, in 2017 she was selected as a United Nations Messenger of Peace. She studied philosophy, politics and economics at the University of Oxford. 

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