8 Empowering Female-Led Ted Talks Every Woman Needs to Watch
For over 30 years, TED Talks have spotlighted paradigm-shifting ideas, visionaries, radical perspectives and research helping expand our worldviews. Among thousands of inspirational presentations, some of the most perceptively life-changing talks specifically for women come from formidable female leaders themselves.
Below I highlight 8 must-see female-led Ted Talks that every modern woman needs to watch. Their vulnerable storytelling, actionable wisdom and role modeling empower us to actualize our boldest ambitions.
1. Own Your Success – Anne Marie Slaughter
Former foreign policy director Anne Marie Slaughter digs into a topic many prominent women timidly avoid – imposter syndrome. Despite decades excelling in her field, Slaughter confesses to still battling fears of undeserving recognition. Her candor immediately resonates for perfectionistic ally striving women denying their own gifts. Slaughter encourages replacing self-doubt with self-trust to own our talents proudly.
“When we too often deny our power, downplay our assets, undersell our value – then we’re not just perpetuating bias and discrimination that have kept women back for centuries but missing our chance to fix them.”
2. Life Lessons from Work and Motherhood – Dominique Ansel
Passionate pastry chef Dominique Ansel recounts her circuitous ascent creating the Cronut while 8-months pregnant! Becoming an overnight business sensation inevitably impacted life at home as a mother. With humor and honesty, she shares time-tested wisdom on resisting pressures to achieve picture perfect work-life balance. Instead, remain present while allowing both domains to ebb, flow, prosper.
3 How We’ll Become Cyborgs – Nina Tandon
Futurist and biotech CEO Nina Tandon showcases mind-blowing innovations in prosthetics controlled by users’ brains and nerves. Integrating human anatomy with responsive robotics restores mobility for amputees while expanding capabilities. She concludes that such human-electron melds point to an emerging real-life version of sci-fi cyborgs – and we shouldn’t resist the change on the horizon. Rather, courageously embrace the personal and societal transformations fusing deeper with A.I. will unleash!
4. The Future of Leadership is Female – Michelle Ryan
Leadership expert and psychology professor Michelle Ryan analyzes generations of data evidencing women’s innate talents in traditionally valued leadership domains. Her numbers quantitatively reinforce that embracing feminine qualities like collaboration, nurturing and communication greatly benefits organizational success and culture. Ryan makes an economic case for placing more women executives in the corporate pipeline. Thought-provoking stuff!
5. The Beauty of Being a Misfit – Lidia Yuknavitch
My favorite talk on this list comes from author and self-proclaimed misfit Lidia Yuknavitch. An emotional outlier since childhood, Yuknavitch struggled in vain to conform to societal standards of beauty and achievement. Years numbing herself with alcohol and destructive behaviors eventually gave way to embracing her full spectrum of human experiences – joy, grief, transcendence, rage alike. She shares how befriending your innermost weirdness and wounds unleashes creative genius and life force. Let her story inspire you to let your freak flag fly proudly!
Beyond those featured here, TED offers thousands more inspirational female perspectives transforming how we approach life, business, relationships and self-actualizing purpose. Which woman leader’s wisdom resonates most powerfully with your current journey? Follow their guidance to manifest dreams once seeming impossibly beyond grasp.
6 Rewriting the Code on STEM Education for Girls
Reshma Saujani founded the influential non-profit Girls Who Code empowering young women to bravely pursue opportunities in science, tech, engineering and math. She argues most STEM educational programs drill uninspiring rote technical skills lacking context, real-world connection or creativity. No wonder historically underrepresented girls tune out!
Saujani makes an impassioned case to fundamentally reimagine computer science curricula highlighting societal impact. Let girls code mobile apps supporting women’s issues or games tackling systemic inequality. Making programming personally meaningful, collaborative and idealistic fuels women’s engagement pursuing STEM careers after all.
7 A New Paradigm for Health and Body Positivity
Nadia Craddock overcame her own restrictive eating disorder by founding the body positivity organization Project HEAL. Their revolutionary programs teach proactive self-love habits over reactive weight fixation. Health emerges holistically across physical, social, mental and spiritual domains – not defined reductively by a number on a scale.
Craddock calls for radically reframing external appearance-based validation by instead channeling energy towards constructive personal passions and community enrichment. Choose nourishing foods, activities and relationships that make your soul thrive rather than conforming to unrealistic, unsustainable ideals that wilt the spirit.
8 Owning Feminine Power in the Boardroom
Executive coach Suzanne Mercier coaches female leaders on wielding authority with authentic confidence. Contrary to popular belief, the so-called “feminine” communication styles – like conversational speech patterns, projecting warmth and caretaking team relationships – positively correlate to companies’ bottom lines. Yet outdated paradigms still pressure women to adopt overly aggressive “masculine” postures while leading.
Mercier cites evidence proving the most successful organizations actively recruit and elevate female executives specifically for their innate talents supporting employees through inspiring vision, nurturing and cooperation. She urges every ambitious woman to own this competitive advantage rather than forcing themselves into masculine suit jackets to fit in. Serve companies best by leading as your strongest, most authentic self.