Over the past year, the world has been battered by multiple crises, including a global pandemic that has infected tens of millions, cost more than 1.5 million lives, and devastated almost every nation’s economy. But according to a study by the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) and the World Economic Forum (WEF), countries led by women had “systematically and significantly better” outcomes related to COVID-19, which were the result of “proactive and coordinated policy responses” such as earlier lockdowns.

That got us thinking: in this year of challenge, which women have offered models of creative, thoughtful and decisive leadership? Whether guiding a nation with a steady hand or rising up against injustice, these leaders offer glimpses of how to make progress in the most difficult of circumstances.

Jacinda Ardern

Widely lauded for leading one of the world’s most successful coronavirus responses, Jacinda Ardern and her Labour party won a landslide victory in October’s election. She wasted no time in selecting the most diverse cabinet in New Zealand’s history. Out of 20 members, eight are women, five are Maori, three are Pasifika and three are LGBTQ+. It is a cabinet that, for the first time, fully represents all New Zealanders.

Ardern’s choices are more than a box-ticking exercise. While the new cabinet has shifted the popular understanding of what leadership can look like, it is also a reminder that people from different backgrounds bring with them unique perspectives, skills and life experiences, all of which are essential in tackling our greatest challenges.

Angela Merkel

In September, a fire devastated the overcrowded Moria refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos, leaving thousands of people homeless. Angela Merkel quickly agreed to accept approximately 2,750 people, including unaccompanied minors. The move pressured other EU countries to do their part and open their arms, too.

Merkel’s decision echoed her 2015 statement that Germany would find a way to handle the massive influx of refugees who had fled their home countries. Despite domestic political backlash and a continent splintered over the refugee crisis, Merkel has approached the issue in the signature manner of a scientist-turned-stateswoman—with pragmatic empathy, a drive to experiment, and a belief in the need for collective action.

Damilola Odufuwa and Odunayo Eweniyi

For years, women activists across Nigeria have used online tools to organise social change, whether it was to free the Chibok girls kidnapped by the terrorist group Boko Haram or to raise awareness about gender-based violence. In July, Damilola Odufuwa and Odunayo Eweniyi formed a group with 11 other women called the Feminist Coalition with the aim of improving the rights of Nigerian women. When anger about the unchecked police brutality by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) reached fever pitch in autumn, they launched into action with their first project— and the #EndSARS movement became a rallying cry around the world.

Stacey Abrams

When Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams lost her bid for governor in 2018, some commentators thought she should run for the senate—some thought she should run for president. Instead, Abrams stayed committed to her longtime project of turning her home state from red to blue. Five years earlier, Abrams had launched The New Georgia Project, which empowered low-income Georgians to help get more people signed up for healthcare. Over time, that initiative became a voter-registration effort. In the process, Abrams built a broad coalition of people and organisations across the state, registered huge numbers of Georgians to vote, and changed people’s understanding of southern politics. Her painstaking organising paid off this year when Joe Biden won Georgia, helping to seal his victory.

Sarah Gilbert

Professor Sarah Gilbert may be as close to a real-life superhero as one gets. The veteran Oxford scientist developed a coronavirus vaccine that could help save the world from COVID-19. Early data suggests that the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine that her team worked on affords up to 90 per cent protection against the virus, and is cheaper and easier to store than promising vaccines announced by Pfizer and BioNTech, and Moderna. Gilbert’s version could therefore benefit more people across the world.

Klementyna Suchanow

When Poland’s Constitutional Court imposed a near-total ban on abortions in October 2020, the country’s Conservative government could not have predicted the backlash. Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets, including in demonstrations organised by The All-Poland Women’s Strike, led by activist Klementyna Suchanow. Suchanow says that in protesting the draconian abortion laws, people are rising up against the Catholic Church’s tight grip over the country’s political decisions. Poles, especially women and young people, are frustrated by the Church’s power to intrude into their lives and furious at the concurrent hypocrisy revealed by the child sex-abuse scandal. Whether the protesters succeed in overturning the law remains to be seen. But one thing is clear: the movement has energised a new generation of women, unbounded by the past—and they aren’t going anywhere.

Maria Ressa

This summer, in the middle of the pandemic, Philippine journalist Maria Ressa stood in a courtroom and was convicted of cyber libel. Ressa and her news site, Rappler, had long been targeted by Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte for its critical coverage of his regime, including his response to COVID-19. But it was her arrest in 2019 that shifted Ressa’s thinking about her role as a journalist and persuaded her to speak openly about Duterte’s abuse of power against the press and the resulting threat to democracy his behaviour poses. Citing Duterte’s use of misinformation through social media to demonise the press and spread conspiracy theories, she warns that other countries face similar threats. Though Ressa still faces the prospect of prison and threats of violence, she refuses to be silenced. As she says, “Journalism is activism.”

Bilkis Dadi

At the end of 2019, India’s ruling party enacted the Citizenship Amendment Act, which introduced religion as a criterion for citizenship. But people wouldn’t let this happen without a fight—least of all an 82-year-old woman named Bilkis Dadi (birth name Bilkis Bano, dadi means grandmother), who joined thousands of others in a Muslim neighbourhood in Delhi to protest. Every day, Bilkis sat at the protest site from morning until night. Throughout the winter chill, she was undeterred.

Although Bilkis and her fellow protesters were shut down, she was widely celebrated and even included on Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people of 2020. In the face of powerful opposition, this woman has become an equally powerful reminder of what is worth fighting for.

Sanna Marin

Despite its reputation for being a progressive oasis, Finland has an oppressive law on the books— the Trans Act—which requires trans individuals to undergo mental health screenings and sterilisation if they want to obtain legal gender recognition. The country’s prime minister, Sanna Marin, intends to change that. She has spoken in favour of people’s right to self-identify, saying, “It’s not my job to identify people. It’s everyone’s job to identify themselves.”

This is the latest feminist act by Marin, whose coalition government is led by all women. Her support for ending the Trans Act is an assertion of feminism, which seeks to dismantle outdated notions of gender norms and ensure that everybody can define who they are and live as they choose.