Source: Nigerian Tribune
It would be dishonest to say that 2014 has been a good year for women. We looked in disbelief as a terrorist group in Syria and Iraq turned women into slaves, and another radical group in Nigeria captured hundreds of female students and disappeared with them.

But 2014 was also a year in which many women fought back and inspired the world with their bravery and savvy. They taught us that the stakes are high and the road to a better future is fraught with difficulties, but with strength and dignity, we can get there.

Here are some of the women who in 2014 stared down the odds, helped change history, or changed our perceptions.
Two phenomenal Nigerian women, Chimamanda Adichie and late Dr Stella Adadevoh have been recognised by international media house, Cable News Network CNN, among several others chosen globally as world's leading women for the outgone year based on their contributions and special feats.
In a list released on December 23, 2014 by CNN, late Adadevoh was recognised for her significant contribution towards the prevention of the spread of the deadly Ebola virus in Nigeria while Chimamanda was recognised for her contributions to African Literature.
Other women on the list included Liberian President, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Oscar award winning actress Lupita Nyong'o, and IMF Chairman, Christine Lagarde. The final list brings you women worldwide who stood out for their accomplishments in 2014.Diezani K. Alison-Madueke  is the first female President of OPEC, elected at the 166th OPEC Ordinary meeting in Vienna on 27 November, 2014. She was Nigeria's minister of transportation in 2007, later moved to Mines and Steel Development in 2008, and in April 2010 was appointed Minister of Petroleum Resources till date.
As Minister of Petroleum Resources, Alison-Madueke pledged to transform Nigeria's oil and gas industry so that all Nigerians benefit.
Alison-Madueke is the first woman to hold the position of Minister of Petroleum Resources in Nigeria, and in October 2010 she became the first woman to head a country delegation at the annual OPEC conference. She was also the first female Minister of Transportation, and the first woman to be appointed to the board of Shell Petroleum Development Company Nigeria.
On working in male-dominated sectors, Alison-Madueke said she warned the young women she mentored while at Shell to "change their mode of thinking.''Lupita Amondi Nyong'o a Mexican-Kenyan actress and film director. She was born in Mexico and moved to the United States for college, graduating from Hampshire College with a bachelor's degree in film and theatre studies.
Nyong'o started in the film industry as a production assistant on several Hollywood films. In 2008, she made her acting debut with the short film East River and subsequently returned to Kenya to star in the television series Shuga (2009). In 2009, she wrote, produced and directed the documentary film In My Genes.
She had her first feature film role in Steve McQueen's historical drama 12 Years a Slave (2013). She earned the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, among numerous other awards and nominations. Nyong'o is the first Kenyan and first Mexican actress to win an Academy Award. In 2014, she was named "The Most Beautiful Woman" by People and "Woman of the Year" by Glamour.
In December 2014, Lupita Nyong'o was appointed by the Togolese magazine Africa Top Success for "African of the Year".

Malala Yousafzai: Joint recipient of this year's Nobel Peace Prize for her ongoing fight for a girl's right to education. She is a leading spokesperson for women's rights, and is setting an example for women and girls around the globe.
When it comes to defying those who would stop women's equality, the foremost icon is Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani girl shot in the head by the Taliban to stop her efforts to help girls attain education. Malala survived and kept up her mission. She and Kailash Satyarthi, an Indian children's rights advocate, won the Nobel Peace prize together. She is the youngest person in history to win the award.
Further outstanding women nominated for their work in the fields of Science and Technology, Health, Politics, Philanthropy, Business and Arts are:

Arts
Amma Asante: BAFTA winning writer and director whose film, Belle, received praise from Oprah Winfrey. The film is the seventh highest grossing independent movie of 2014.
Roxane Gay: Author and professor of English at Purdue University and co-editor of PANK. In 2014 she published Untamed State and Bad Feminist.

Ellen Page: Actress most famous for her roles in Juno, Inception and X-Men: Days of Future Past. In 2014, Page came out as gay in a speech at a Human Rights Campaign's conference.

Victoria Siddall: Director, Frieze Fairs. In 2014, she was appointed as Director of Frieze London (from 2015) and Frieze New York (from 2016) in addition to her existing position as Director of Frieze Masters.
Kerry Washington: Actress who has starred in TV drama Scandal, written by Shonda Rhimes, since 2012. In 2014, she was named as one of the most influential people in the world by TIME magazine.
Science, technology, engineering and Math (stem)

Josephine Finda Sellu and Kaci Hickox took on Ebola
International attention on Ebola -- and panic that it will spread in the West -- has waned. But the battle to stop Ebola in West Africa continues, and the front lines are guarded by women, mostly nurses risking their lives to care for the ill. The story of Sierra Leone's Josephine Finda Sellu, showed the incredible courage and commitment of the task. She recalled more than a dozen nurses in her staff already dead, wondering how many more would perish.
Most of those fighting the disease are Africans, but Western volunteers have joined, also doing heroic work. They included Kaci Hickox, a Maine nurse who found herself at the center of a politicized dispute when she returned home. Hickox refused to allow politicians and public health officials give in to public fears. By refusing to sit quietly in an airport isolation tent, and later in home quarantine, she forced Americans to look more clearly at the risks and helped put an end to the overblown panic.

Dr Nancy J Cox: Director of CDC's Influenza Division, Dr. Cox retired from the CDC yesterday, 31 December 2014 yesterday after a career improving the world's ability to combat influenza.

Samantha Cristoforetti: European Space Agency astronaut who was launched on the Soyuz spacecraft to live and work on the International Space Station in 2014.

Milka Duno: Race car driver who won the Rolex Series Miami Grand Prix becoming the first woman in history to win a major international race in the USA.

Ellen Kooijman: Dutch geochemist whose LEGO Mini figures, featuring three female scientists, sold out within days of their limited release this year.
"My six-year-old daughter has the LEGO set designed by Kooijman," says CNN anchor Kristie Lu Stout who nominated her. "It's widened her career options from princess to astronomer!"

Joyce Banda: First female President of Malawi from 2012 to 2014. Founder of the Joyce Banda Foundation which empowers Malawian women and offers free education to orphans.

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf: Liberian President, Africa's first elected female head of states and winner of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize. She also led her country through its first Ebola outbreak.

Aung San Suu Kyi: Burmese activist, 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner and co founder of the National League for Democracy, a party dedicated to nonviolence.

Kathleen Wynne: First female premier of Ontario, and the first openly gay head of government in Canada. In June 2014, she was reelected with a majority government.

Helen Zille: Former campaigning activist, current Executive Mayor of Cape Town, South Africa and leader of the country's opposition party, the Democratic Alliance.

Humanitarian
Dr Hawa Abdi: Somali activist, gynecologist and founder of the Dr Hawa Abdi Foundation; a non profit organisation which provides free shelter, water and medical care to women and children.

Shabana Basij-Rasikh: Co-founder and President of SOLA, a non-profit organisation that helps exceptional young Afghan women access education and employment.

Yevgeniya Chirikova: Environmental activist who won the 2012 Goldman Environmental Prize for her campaign against the destruction of the Khimki Forest in Moscow.

Angelina Jolie: Actress, UNHCR Ambassador and founder of the Maddox Jolie-Pitt Foundation conservation project. Directed her second film, Unbroken, in 2014.

Oby Ezekwesili helped rally the world to #BringBackOurGirls
When hundreds of Nigerian girls were kidnapped by Boko Haram, the Islamist radical group, Nigerian women needed help to resolve the crisis. Oby Ezekwesili was one of the key figures who helped launch a viral campaign, #BringBackOurGirls, that took the Twitterati by storm and got the world's attention.
Some of the girls managed to escape, and bravely told the horrifying story of their captivity. The threat from Boko Haram is no longer secret. Neglect by the central government is harder to conceal, and the search is not over. Hope for their return is not lost.

Hadiza Bala Usman: Activist and initiator of the protest movement asking for the release of 200 school girls abducted in Borno State, Nigeria on April 14, 2014 which spread worldwide.

Business
Rosalind Brewer: President and CEO of Sam's Club, a division of Wal-Mart. Currently the 64th most powerful woman in the world according to Forbes.

Jo Malone: Fragrance designer who created a multi-million dollar fragrance empire, which she sold in 2006 to Estée Lauder before creating new company -- Jo Loves.

Indra Nooyi: Current chairperson and CEO of PepsiCo. She led the company's restructuring, acquired Tropicana in 1998, and is the food and beverage giant's fifth Chief Executive Officer(CEO).

Karen Fondu: L'Oréal Paris President who works on the Women of Worth initiative, supporting women-led organisations through financial support and mentorship.

Vian Dakhil and the Kobani women who fought ISIS
The most enduring and inspiring images of 2014 come from the besieged city of Kobani, the Kurdish town on Syria's border with Turkey where ISIS, also known as the Islamic State, met unexpectedly fierce resistance. ISIS militants, who have brutalised girls and women, knew they would face opposition but did not expect Kobani's defending army to include large numbers of women. Women make up about one-third of Kobani's defenders and are part of a dramatic effort by female residents in Iraq and Syria to turn the tide against ISIS's misogynistic extremists.
It was Vian Dakhil who captured the world's attention by telling her fellow members of the Iraqi parliament about the impending genocide of the Yazidis. There were also women in Mosul, Iraq, who gave their lives fighting against ISIS in other ways. Their collective message? They would do everything possible to stop ISIS from reviving the practice of selling women into slavery.

Barbara Bowman, Joan Tarshis and others came out against Cosby
More than a dozen women have come out accusing Bill Cosby, a beloved television personality, of sexual assault and rape. Women such as Barbara Bowman, Joan Tarshis, Janice Dickinson, Judy Huth and others.
Perhaps what's most surprising is that these accusations are not new but that the world had not taken them seriously. Nothing has been proved in a court of law, but the women, whose voices are finally being heard, have created an important zeitgeist moment. Sexual assault by anyone, even powerful people, is simply not acceptable. These women are breaking down the barriers for others to come out and tell their stories.

Minal Sampath and fellow space explorers boosted India
When Indian scientists and engineers put a rocket into orbit around Mars, mission control exploded into cheers. Among them were scores of women in colourful saris. India's space programme is drawing worldwide accolades, and many of the people responsible for its success are Indian women.

Shonda Rhimes and Julianna Margulies are changing prime time
For decades, women were relegated largely to supporting role on U.S. television. That has changed, with strong women now playing the lead in several prime time shows. The small screen is suddenly filled with powerful, multidimensional characters -- women whose lives are not centered on the men in their lives.

Taylor Swift and Sofia Vergara know how to build empires
Women may have performed for a long time, but the phenomenon of women taking charge of their careers and building empires is newer. Talented, entrepreneurial women are creating entertainment empires with themselves at the centre.