TOP INFLUENTIAL WOMEN IN THE US

The top influential women in the US according to search volume, total social following, number of GIFs, number of charities they support and Wikipedia searches...

As a brand, we are inspired by women every day and strive to empower women through self-love, both in our products and messaging. That’s why we have undertaken research to find out who the most influential women are in the US. From singer-songwriters to politicians, we believe every woman has the power to inspire and influence in a positive way.

We have looked at the number of searches each person has received over the last year, how many followers they have across social media, the number of GIFs there are of each woman, the number of charities they support and finally the number of Wikipedia page views.

Ready to be inspired by some of America’s most influential women? Find out who came top in our index ranking below.

The top 100 influential women in the US

How the popularity of influential women has changed over time

According to our index, Kamala Harris is the most influential woman in the US, with a total of 62.8 million US Google searches, followed by Ariana Grande with 29.9 million US Google searches.

Kamala and Ariana sit in different categories, with Kamala in the politics and policy category and Ariana in the media and entertainment category. Despite Kamala being more searched for, there is a significant difference in their social following, with Ariana Grande totaling 328.3 million followers across all platforms - 293.2 million more than Kamala Harris, who has 35.1 million followers.

Eight out of the top ten influential women are in the media and entertainment sector, with the two exceptions being Kamala Harris, who comes under the politics and policy category and MacKenzie Scott who comes under the philanthropy category.

To create this index, we analyzed six key factors that play a part in what we consider to be an influential woman in the 21st century, then combined them into a weighted rank to reveal our top 100. You can find more detail on each factor below.

THE USA’S MOST SEARCHED FOR INFLUENTIAL WOMEN IN HISTORY

Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris comes top with a staggering 62.8 million Google searches from the US alone.

Pop sensation, Billie Eilish is the second most searched for influential woman, with a total of 34.8 million US searches. Third position goes to another talented singer, Ariana Grande who received over 29.9 million US searches.

American singer Cardi B appears in the top 20 with 20.4 million US Google searches.

It’s both positive and encouraging to see a variety of women from different professions achieving such high popularity through Google searches and providing inspiration for the next generation as influential women.

MOST POPULAR CATEGORIES

Media and entertainment is the most populated category for influential women, with 53 out of 100 women falling into this category. The likes of pop singers Cardi B, Olivia Rodrigo and Beyonce and actresses Halle Berry and Jada Pinkett Smith are just some of the influential women in history that appear in the media and entertainment category.

The second most populated category is sports, with 23 influential women from the top 100 in this category. Gold medalist swimmer Katie Ledecky, gymnast Simone Biles, and tennis champions Naomi Osaka and Serena and Venus Williams are just some of the influential women who sit within the sports category.

Politics and policy is the third most popular categories with 11 women appearing in this category. Notable American women fall into these categories, such as Michelle Obama, Kamala Harris and Hillary Clinton, as well as Ruth Porat, Chief Financial Officer of Alphabet, and COO of Facebook Sheryl Sanberg.

MOST FOLLOWED INFLUENTIAL WOMEN

When it comes to social following, Instagram queen Ariana Grande takes the top spot with a staggering 328 million followers across all social platforms. 255 million of these are from Instagram alone, where Grande updates fans regularly with behind-the-scenes videos, sassy selfies and song exclusives.

Actress and singer Selena Gomez takes second place with a total of 304 million followers on social media.

MOST ‘GIFABLE’ INFLUENTIAL WOMEN

American journalist Lisa Ling is the most ‘gifable’ influential woman in the US index analysis, she has appeared in 38,371 GIFs in total. Following Lisa is TV personality Gayle King with 15,204 GIFs, and the third most ‘gifable’ influential woman is singer Ruth E. Carter, who appears in 12,829 GIFs in total.

WOMEN WITH THE MOST WIKIPEDIA PAGE VIEWS

Wikipedia page views was another metric within our analysis, which found that Kamala Harris was the influential woman who experienced the most page views, ranking at 39 million in 2020.

Following Kamala Harris was singer-songwriter Billie Eilish who saw 13 million page views in 2020, and the third is Scarlett Johansson with 8.8 million Wikipedia page views in 2020.

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Methodology and Sources

We looked at existing reports to find out the top influential women in the US, before analyzing the women across the different industries they work in. We gathered Google search data for the US, the number of followers on Instagram and Twitter, the number of page views on Wikipedia for 2020, the number of charities the women support as well as the number of GIFs.

These factors were combined into a weighted rank using min to max normalization, in order to provide us with an overall ranking. Data pulled July-September 2021. View the full dataset here.