International Women's Day 2025: Books, films and TV shows to empower you
7 March 2025, 14:38
Celebrate International Women's Day this year with our top picks of the best books, films and TV shows to empower yourself as a woman.
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International Women's Day 2025 is "a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women," where people across the world come together to forge a path to gender equality.
If you're a woman in need of some empowering content in your life, there's nowhere better to turn than to cinema, literature and even your TV for some of the most inspiring stories.
Whether it's Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai's story of strength and resilience or America Ferrera's profound speech in the hit film Barbie, there's no time like the present to tap into your inner activist and start making change.
We've put together our top picks of books, films and TV shows that will inspire and empower you to continue to show the strength of women.
Book: Women Don't Owe You Pretty by Florence Given
Women Don't Owe You Pretty is the ultimate book for anyone who wants to challenge the out-dated narratives supplied to us by the patriarchy. Through Florence's story you will learn how to protect your energy, discover that you are the love of your own life, and realise that today is a wonderful day to dump them. Florence Given is here to remind you that you owe men nothing, least of all pretty.
Book: I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai
I AM MALALA is the remarkable tale of a family uprooted by global terrorism, of the fight for girls' education, of a father who, himself a school owner, championed and encouraged his daughter to write and attend school, and of brave parents who have a fierce love for their daughter in a society that prizes sons.
Book: We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
In this personal, eloquently argued essay – adapted from her much-admired Tedx talk of the same name – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie offers readers a unique definition of feminism for the twenty-first century, one rooted in inclusion and awareness. Drawing extensively on her own experiences and her deep understanding of the often masked realities of sexual politics, here is one remarkable author’s exploration of what it means to be a woman now – an of-the-moment rallying cry for why we should all be feminists.
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My own definition is a feminist is a man or a woman who says, yes, there’s a problem with gender as it is today and we must fix it, we must do better. All of us, women and men, must do better.
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Film: Barbie
Barbie and Ken are having the time of their lives in the colorful and seemingly perfect world of Barbie Land. However, when they get a chance to go to the real world, they soon discover the joys and perils of living among humans.
Film: Hidden Figures
The story of a team of female African-American mathematicians who served a vital role in NASA during the early years of the U.S. space program.
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We go from being our fathers' daughters to our husbands' wives to our babies' mothers.
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Film: Little Women
Jo March reflects back and forth on her life, telling the beloved story of the March sisters - four young women, each determined to live life on her own terms.
TV Show: The Morning Show
An inside look at the lives of the people who help America wake up in the morning, exploring the unique challenges faced by the team.
TV Show: I May Destroy You
The question of sexual consent in contemporary life and how, in the new landscape of dating and relationships, we make the distinction between liberation and exploitation.
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Women - they have minds, and they have souls, as well as just hearts. And they’ve got ambition, and they’ve got talent, as well as just beauty. I’m so sick of people saying that love is all a woman is fit for.
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TV Show: Gilmore Girls
A dramedy centering around the relationship between a thirtysomething single mother and her teen daughter living in Stars Hollow, Connecticut.
