To claim that one woman is the most influential woman in London in the past Century is a serious allegation, thus it must be well-deserved right?
Metro readers this year voted Leona Lewis as the Most Influential Woman to live and work in London in the last century, are they all deluded or is there some truth to this?
Looking at the other nominees, either in history or present day one has to question whether this was instead a popular, celebrity vote.
Lewis, 25, only kicked off her career after her X-Factor win in 2006, so has only been on the radar for about four years.
Her career sky-rocketed as her success continued to grow with her singing career and to be perfectly honest, her bank balance. We won’t let this hinder the fact that she could in fact be a very influential woman, but only for the right reasons?
Let’s look at her success as a leading Female figure in London.
Leona has had a lot of personal success that does not completely give her claim to the most influential of women in London. From being voted PETA’s “sexiest vegetarian” in 2008 (believe it or not) to winning a total of 25 awards from 45 nominations.
We could all look at this as inspirational; her success being a drive for many other young (vegetarian?) women to pursue their careers and have the chance to gain the success and recognition that Leona has.
As a big Animal Rights supporter, Leona has been known to take a stand when it comes to the use of animal fur. Admirable, yes, but it’s not anything new, nor is it something that has brought a great impact to the cause itself.
She also took part in a campaign in 2008 along with other female singers to stand up to cancer. One cannot deny Leona’s success in her career, nor can we say that she is not influential and doesn’t have a good heart.
The problem here is the percentage of votes that other nominees received in comparison to that of Leona Lewis, who ended up with 70.9%!
Yes, granted her use of Celebrity and fame to support causes has helped in its own way, but those who should really be admired are those women who have actively made efforts to do something for the good of society.
So I think it’s time we looked at what this bold claim actually means.
Metro readers were asked to vote for their favourite most influential woman in London, and this is where all the controversy has come from. In terms of ‘favourite’, it’s easy for readers and supporters to vote for someone like Leona; her beauty, fame, talent and wealth making her the ideal candidate.
Second place came Margaret Thatcher with ONLY 5.14%, rather embarrassing I think, given that Margaret Thatcher has done far more for London. Plus she has influenced far more women in the country than Leona Lewis ever could.
Emmeline Pankhurst, whom enabled women to vote, only got 1.78%. It is plain to see that Metro readers were either staunch fans of Leona Lewis’ or the title of award was confused with “Who is the most successful Woman in London”.
Leona Lewis may have been Metros’ favourite, but whether she really is London’s most influential woman in the past century is questionable. Surely someone like Emmeline Pankhurst should take the cake?
