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The 2010s have seen numerous watershed moments for female empowerment, equal pay and gender equality, while global movements like #MeToo and TimesUp have prompted major societal shifts in just the last two years.
Elsewhere, female leaders have pioneered discussions on key issues such as climate change, education and gun violence.
There are many speeches made by women in the last 10 years worth revisiting, but a few soundbites will stand the test of time in decades to come.
Who could forget the moment Patricia Arquette nobly used her best actress speech at the Oscars in 2015 to demand equal pay?
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Created with Sketch.
1/10 Malala Yousafzai
"One child, one teacher, one pen and one book can change the world." United Nations Youth Assembly, New York, 2013
Getty Images
2/10 Michelle Obama
“Whether it was during my time as a lawyer, as an administrator at a university, a nonprofit manager, even now as First Lady, I’ve never once asked someone I was interviewing to explain a test score or a grade in a class -- never. I’ve never once made a hire just because someone went to an Ivy League school instead of a state school -- never. What I have looked for is what kind of person you are. Are you a hard worker? Are you reliable? Are you open to other viewpoints? Have you stepped outside of your own self-interest to serve others? Have you found a way to serve our country, whether in uniform or in your community?” Commencement address at Eastern Kentucky University, Kentucky, 2013
Getty Images
3/10 Emma Watson
"I have realized that fighting for women’s rights has too often become synonymous with man-hating. If there is one thing I know for certain, it is that this has to stop." United Nations, New York, 2014
Getty Images
4/10 Patricia Arquette
“To every woman who gave birth to every taxpayer and citizen of this nation, we have fought for everybody else’s equal rights. It’s our time to have wage equality once and for all." Academy Awards, California, 2015
Getty Images
5/10 Hillary Clinton
"All the evidence tells us that despite the enormous obstacles that remain, there has never been a better time in history to be born female. But the data leads to a second conclusion: That despite all this progress, we're just not there yet." Women in The World Summit, New York, 2015
Getty Images
6/10 Gloria Steinem
“We are here and around the world for a deep democracy that says we will not be quiet, we will not be controlled, we will work for a world in which all countries are connected. God may be in the details, but the goddess is in connections. We are at one with each other, we are looking at each other, not up." Women's March in Washington DC, 2017
Getty Images
7/10 Oprah Winfrey
“So I want all the girls watching here and now to know that a new day is on the horizon! And when that new day finally dawns, it will be because of a lot of magnificent women, many of whom are right here in this room tonight, and some pretty phenomenal men, fighting hard to make sure that they become the leaders who take us to the time when nobody ever has to say, ‘Me too’ again. Thank you.” Golden Globe Awards, California, 2018
NBCUniversal via Getty Images
8/10 Emma Gonzalez
"So we are speaking up for those who don’t have anyone listening to them, for those who can’t talk about it just yet, and for those who will never speak again. We are grieving, we are furious, and we are using our words fiercely and desperately because that’s the only thing standing between us and this happening again.” March for Our Lives rally, Washington DC, 2018
Getty Images
9/10 Tarana Burke
“So much of what we hear about the Me Too Movement is about individual bad actors or depraved, isolated behavior, and it fails to recognize that anybody in a position of power comes with privilege, and it renders those without that power more vulnerable. Teachers and students, coaches and athletes, law enforcement and citizen, parent and child: these are all relationships that can have an incredible imbalance of power. But we reshape that imbalance by speaking out against it in unison and by creating spaces to speak truth to power. We have to reeducate ourselves and our children to understand that power and privilege doesn't always have to destroy and take -- it can be used to serve and build. And we have to re-educate ourselves to understand that, unequivocally, every human being has the right to walk through this life with their full humanity intact.” Ted Women, California, 2018
Getty Images for Comedy Central
10/10 Greta Thunberg
"The eyes of all future generations are upon you. And if you choose to fail us, I say - we will never forgive you." UN Climate Summit, New York, 2019
Getty Images
1/10 Malala Yousafzai
"One child, one teacher, one pen and one book can change the world." United Nations Youth Assembly, New York, 2013
Getty Images
2/10 Michelle Obama
“Whether it was during my time as a lawyer, as an administrator at a university, a nonprofit manager, even now as First Lady, I’ve never once asked someone I was interviewing to explain a test score or a grade in a class -- never. I’ve never once made a hire just because someone went to an Ivy League school instead of a state school -- never. What I have looked for is what kind of person you are. Are you a hard worker? Are you reliable? Are you open to other viewpoints? Have you stepped outside of your own self-interest to serve others? Have you found a way to serve our country, whether in uniform or in your community?” Commencement address at Eastern Kentucky University, Kentucky, 2013
Getty Images
3/10 Emma Watson
"I have realized that fighting for women’s rights has too often become synonymous with man-hating. If there is one thing I know for certain, it is that this has to stop." United Nations, New York, 2014
Getty Images
4/10 Patricia Arquette
“To every woman who gave birth to every taxpayer and citizen of this nation, we have fought for everybody else’s equal rights. It’s our time to have wage equality once and for all." Academy Awards, California, 2015
Getty Images
5/10 Hillary Clinton
"All the evidence tells us that despite the enormous obstacles that remain, there has never been a better time in history to be born female. But the data leads to a second conclusion: That despite all this progress, we're just not there yet." Women in The World Summit, New York, 2015
Getty Images
6/10 Gloria Steinem
“We are here and around the world for a deep democracy that says we will not be quiet, we will not be controlled, we will work for a world in which all countries are connected. God may be in the details, but the goddess is in connections. We are at one with each other, we are looking at each other, not up." Women's March in Washington DC, 2017
Getty Images
7/10 Oprah Winfrey
“So I want all the girls watching here and now to know that a new day is on the horizon! And when that new day finally dawns, it will be because of a lot of magnificent women, many of whom are right here in this room tonight, and some pretty phenomenal men, fighting hard to make sure that they become the leaders who take us to the time when nobody ever has to say, ‘Me too’ again. Thank you.” Golden Globe Awards, California, 2018
NBCUniversal via Getty Images
8/10 Emma Gonzalez
"So we are speaking up for those who don’t have anyone listening to them, for those who can’t talk about it just yet, and for those who will never speak again. We are grieving, we are furious, and we are using our words fiercely and desperately because that’s the only thing standing between us and this happening again.” March for Our Lives rally, Washington DC, 2018
Getty Images
9/10 Tarana Burke
“So much of what we hear about the Me Too Movement is about individual bad actors or depraved, isolated behavior, and it fails to recognize that anybody in a position of power comes with privilege, and it renders those without that power more vulnerable. Teachers and students, coaches and athletes, law enforcement and citizen, parent and child: these are all relationships that can have an incredible imbalance of power. But we reshape that imbalance by speaking out against it in unison and by creating spaces to speak truth to power. We have to reeducate ourselves and our children to understand that power and privilege doesn't always have to destroy and take -- it can be used to serve and build. And we have to re-educate ourselves to understand that, unequivocally, every human being has the right to walk through this life with their full humanity intact.” Ted Women, California, 2018
Getty Images for Comedy Central
10/10 Greta Thunberg
"The eyes of all future generations are upon you. And if you choose to fail us, I say - we will never forgive you." UN Climate Summit, New York, 2019
Getty Images
Or when Oprah Winfrey took to the stage at the Golden Globes in 2018, becoming the first black woman to accept the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement? Winfrey’s speech began as a personal reflection on her achievements and concluded with a rousing call to arms against sexual harassment, prompting questions of a potential presidential run.
And award ceremonies aren't the only places to have been galvanised by powerful female voices. Look at this year's United Nations Climate Summit, where teenage environmentalist Greta Thunberg eviscerated world leaders for "betraying" young people through lack of action on climate change.
Thunberg's UN moment came just a few years after Emma Watson made a similarly viral speech in 2014, who up until then was best known as the actor who played Hermione Granger in Harry Potter. Watson has since become an ardent women’s rights advocate, a shift that was undoubtedly led by her spirited words on gender equality at the United Nations that year.
“I have realised that fighting for women’s rights has too often become synonymous with man-hating,” said Watson, who had just been appointed UN Women Goodwill Ambassador. “If there is one thing I know for certain, it is that this has to stop.”
Poignant words from women have also brought light to darker times this past decade, like when high school student Emma Gonzalez urged US lawmakers to act in the wake of the Parkland school shooting, where 17 of her classmates were killed.
"We are grieving, we are furious, and we are using our words fiercely and desperately because that’s the only thing standing between us and this happening again," the then-19-year-old memorably said at the March For Our Lives rally in 2018.
Elsewhere, we've heard inspirational speeches from former first ladies, activists and politicians made in every kind of circumstance, from TED talks to university addresses.
Click through the gallery above for our pick of the 10 best quotes from women in the last decade.