10 Zoomer Magazine Covers That Feature Pioneering Women

This International Women’s Day, organizers are asking us to #EmbraceEquity — a campaign that challenges the notion that equal is enough. We can push the needle further forward, they say, supporting and embracing equity and inclusion within our own sphere of influence.

Over the years, Zoomer magazine’s covers have proudly featured women from across the globe — celebrities, performers, activists or politicians who have used their influence to help level — and broaden — the playing field for those who come after.

Today, we salute some of these pioneers by presenting their covers and their stories. Each with a quote to give you taste of the kind of hurdles they’ve overcome and firsts they’ve forged on their way to the top.

 

Deborah Cox, (August/September 2022)

 

“I think that the Hall of Fame represents representation. It represents someone who, like myself, had to pave and take and carve out her own path. It’s validation”  —Deborah Cox on being the first Black woman induction into the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame

 

Molly Johnson, (December 2021/January 2022)

 

“[The racism has come] from both sides — never white enough, never Black enough. I never got real traction in the music business until I started singing jazz, which was seemingly a more appropriate genre for a brown-skinned girl. That still pisses me off. But songwriting keeps me sane”  —Molly Johnson on overcoming racism in the Canadian music industry

 

Monica Deol, (August/September 2021)

 

“My father was a turban-wearing Sikh all of his life. My mom wore a bindi [a coloured dot on the forehead] every day of her life … and wore saris. They were very visibly different. But they were very proud of who they were. And the upside of that is that it made me confident in being different. It did not bother me. The downside is that we did get stereotyped a lot”  —Monica Deol on becoming a “virtual mentor” for South Asian Canadians as host of MuchMusic’s Electric Circus

 

Cicely Tyson, (February/March 2021)

 

“As an artist with the privilege of the spotlight, I felt an enormous responsibility to use that forum as a force for good, as a place from which to display the full spectrum of our humanity. I was determined to do all I could to alter the narrative about Black people — to change the way Black women in particular were perceived, by reflecting our dignity”  —Cicely Tyson (1924-2021) from her memoir, Just as I Am

 

Hazel McCallion, (May 2019)

 

“That was the mentality back then. And that killed him”  —Hazel McCallion (1921–2023) on winning her first of 12 Mississauga, Ont. mayoral elections in 1978, beating out incumbent Ron Searle who has said that he ignored his instincts to “hammer the hell out of her” because she was a woman

 

Helen Mirren, (November/December 2019)

 

“How many people are there in history like Catherine the Great? Women who were complex, who were vulnerable, who were powerful, who were successful — inevitably, as an actor, you are going to be drawn to the idea of playing someone like that”  —Helen Mirren, 74 at the time, on playing a 33-year-old Catherine the Great for the HBO mini-series she also executive produced

 

Jane Goodall, (March 2019)

 

“I always felt in a way the people who said, oh, I was famous because of my legs and things like that, I had feeling in a way that they were right. [But after that book,] I knew that I was completely qualified, and I could call myself a scientist”  —Jane Goodall on writing 1986’s The Chimpanzees of Gombe: Patterns of Behavior

 

Oprah, (April 2018)

 

“We don’t look anything like the characters in the book. But you know, for me personally I have long heard the call, and one of my biggest goals is that I want everyone to feel that they belong and are worth standing up for. That is one of the reasons why I am here, to carry forth that mission” —Oprah on being part of the cast of A Wrinkle in Time

 

Jane Fonda, (June 2015)

 

“I think I became a better actor because of my activism, When you’re an activist and you’re trying to end a war or you’re trying to make things better for women and girls, you’re not going to spend a whole lot of time wearing a designer outfit. I spent 20 years not even wearing makeup and not looking so great, frankly”  —Jane Fonda on prioritizing activism over appearance early in her career

 

Betty White, (December 2014/January 2015)

 

“We didn’t really think about gender as much in those days. There was a job to be done, and whoever was there did it. We didn’t think it was so unusual because it was just there to be done”  —Betty White (1922–2022) on being one of the first women producers in television

 

RELATED:

International Women’s Day: Let’s Celebrate 10 Women in Film Who Broke Through Hollywood’s Bias

Molly Johnson on James Baldwin, Toni Morrison and Candacy Taylor

Watch as Helen Mirren Accepts the SAG Life Achievement Award, Plus 13 Reasons Why We Love the Legendary Actress