Let’s Celebrate These 7 Wins for Women in 2018

It’s becoming an Ellevest tradition to take stock* of the wins for women over the past year. And 2018 was quite a year for women. (I mean, can you believe that TIME’S UP was launched just a year ago???)

We’ll be sharing this countdown on Instagram again this year, too. Tradition’s tradition.

More than 300 women in film, television, business, and theatre launch the TIME’S UP Legal Defense Fund

On January 1, in partnership with Tarana Burke and other leaders of the #MeToo movement, more than 300 prominent women announced the launch of TIME’S UP to provide subsidized support to people who have been victims of sexual harassment, assault, or abuse in the workplace.

In one year, TIME’S UP raised more than $22 million for a legal defense fund that will be managed by the National Women’s Law Center. A nationwide network of lawyers and PR professionals will work with the NWLC’s Legal Network for Gender Equity to carry out the movement’s mission.

Ellen Pompeo is the highest-paid actress on primetime TV

On January 17, The Hollywood Reporter told the world that Ellen Pompeo, star of an obscure show you’ve probably never heard of — Grey’s Anatomy — was TV’s highest-paid actress. That’s thanks to her negotiation skills, the powerfully inspiring Shonda Rhimes as her boss and sponsor, and a new deal that secured her $525,000 per episode (now that’s how it’s done).

156 women put Larry Nassar behind bars for 175 years

Over the course of one week in January, 156 women — gymnasts, athletes, and Olympians — took the stand against former Olympic team doctor and sexual predator Larry Nassar. He’d been abusing the patients he was supposed to be healing, and they struck back — he was sentenced to 175 years in jail.

In July, the survivors were honored with the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the ESPYs. And earlier this month, USA Gymnastics filed for bankruptcy.

The USA Hockey Women’s National Team wins gold — and equal pay

Their Olympic gold this past February in Pyeongchang came on the heels of an even sweeter win. The men’s team had been getting way more money and resources. But after a 15-month battle for equality, the players were promised more resources, more marketing support, and up to $70,000 a year in pay — a pretty big bump from the $1,500 per year (not a typo) they’d been earning.

The New York Stock Exchange welcomes its first woman president

226 years. That’s how long it took for the New York Stock Exchange to name its first woman leader. Stacey Cunningham started her career as an NYSE intern 24 years ago, and on May 25, she took the reins of the whole operation.

The whole world stops to watch one woman speak her truth

None of us who saw Dr. Christine Blasey Ford testify about her experience with sexual assault to the Senate will ever forget it. No, the outcome of those hearings wasn’t what she (and a lot of us) had hoped … and she and her family also faced death threats. But her courage and sense of civic duty inspired other people who’d been through it. Many of them wrote to Dr. Ford to tell her that they “now have bravely shared their experience with friends and family, many for the first time.” And that’s a definite win.

History is made as 126 women are elected to Congress

On November 6, we voted. And there are now more women in political power than ever before — 126 in the US Congress, to be exact. Including firsts for women of so many different backgrounds, in so many states.

We’re fired up to keep the momentum going in 2019. How about you?

*Pun acknowledged but not intended.

CO-FOUNDER & CEO, ELLEVEST