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This International Women's Day, we asked musicians, businesswomen, philosophers, writers and filmmakers to tell us about the women who changed the way they think. This is what they said.
Martha Wainwright, singer-songwriter
Carrie Fisher changed the way I think. She was one of the most brilliant women I ever met and had the privilege of knowing. Despite being pegged from an early age as a sex symbol through her role as Princess Leia, she managed with her brilliant mind to represent true honesty and freedom through her writing and existence.
Clementine Ford, writer and feminist
Recently I've become very inspired by the work of a Seattle-based, queer woman of colour who has been writing very prolifically about race issues in America. I think I stumbled across some of Ijeoma Oluo's work on Facebook, perhaps one of my friends liked her.
I remember feeling that electric sense when you discover someone's writing that you think is in some very powerful way going to affect the trajectory of your thinking. It's very no holds barred.
This is not a woman who minces words. This is not a woman who feels like she needs to apologetically frame any of her ideas and arguments.
Rachel Perkins, director and founder of Blackfella Films
The person who has inspired me and in part made me who I am is Professor Marcia Langton. In a way she's like a contemporary warrior. She uses her intellect as a weapon.
She's probably one of the great minds of the 20th century in Australia and I'm very proud to call her a friend.
Dai Le, businesswoman and broadcaster
The woman that influenced my thinking the most is my mother. She was a refugee from Vietnam, who arrived here on her own and raised her three daughters. I watched her struggle and I watched her adapt to a new society. So I learned to be strong, I learned to be independent and I learned to work hard to contribute back to Australian society.
Leigh Sales, broadcaster
The late Betty Churcher, the former director of the National Gallery of Australia, didn't so much change my thinking as remind me of how we should live life. She was an extraordinary person with such warmth and so much passion for art. But she was never snobby about it, she just wanted to educate you about art so that you could love it as much as she did. It was infectious.
She was always great fun, even the last time I saw her which was a few weeks before she died. She also reminded me that there are seasons for things in life — her career didn't even really start in earnest until she was in her 40s, as she was raising four boys. Just because you can't do something now doesn't mean you never can.
Anne Summers, writer and feminist
When I think about the women that I have learned from, been inspired by and in some ways have tried to be like, the person who I choose first and foremost is Simone de Beauvoir, the French writer, journalist, activist, existentialist, editor.
The only women I encountered when I was a schoolgirl were women like my mother and her friends, who were all women with lots of children ... not having too many examples around me of what the options might be for a girl like me, I turned to books.
Ali Cobby Eckermann, poet
The woman who changed the way I think, who climbed into my heart and benefitted my life deeply was Pitjantjatara elder, my auntie, Nura Ward. As a child she grew up at Ernabella Mission, naked and free, running with the kids.
When I met her she was a strong law woman campaigning for Aboriginal people's health. She was a very talented dancer. She danced the rabbit-eared bandicoot dance. She taught me how to let go of a lot of my pain. She was always saying: "Don't worry about it, leave it, let's go get goanna."
In that simplicity, I learned to release the burden of my past hurts and losses, to laugh again without alcohol or drugs. She passed away in 2013. She meant so much to me that when I felt she was nearing death I flew to Alice Springs and I hitch-hiked to Ernabella to visit her and hold her hand one more time.
Emma Isaacs, founder of Business Chicks
I have known Arianna Huffington now for the best part of five years. I think what I love most about Arianna is that she's self made.
She doesn't quite fit the mould: she was an immigrant, she still has a very strong accent, she's still very proud of that. But she's been able to make her way in an industry in a quite profound way.
Nin Kirkham and Laura D'Olimpio, philosophers
Nin: The contemporary New Zealand philosopher and virtue ethicist Rosalind Hursthouse stands out to me as a person who changed the way I think. I came to the work of Hursthouse when I was writing the final chapters of my PhD. Through her work she demonstrated to me that women can be successful academic philosophers — academic philosophy is a very male dominated field — and her writings on virtue ethics made me realise that it is OK to advance a position that is outside the mainstream.
Laura: One of many women who have offered me a new perspective is contemporary philosopher Martha Nussbaum. Nussbaum was never shy about having a voice and telling a story. Her philosophical claims were defended and fleshed out, contextualised and enhanced by detailed examples, many of which came from narrative artworks.
This inclusive approach draws people to her work and resonates at a level of common humanity. This is so important for philosophers and academics today.
Alice Pung, writer and journalist
I'm greatly inspired by Aung San Suu Kyi, who's the foreign minister and state counselor of Burma. She's not a Western leader, so she doesn't follow the trope of Western female leaders, who get criticised for what they wear or what they say.
She's always been unashamedly quite feminine, she's always worn flowers in her hair. And that doesn't do much to lessen her standing or respect among her followers. I think it's because she's a woman of substance and she doesn't see leadership in terms of polarities.
Shannon Logan, record store owner
One woman who changed my thinking is Sharon Jones, who passed away late last year. She did so much with her life in music, and had a complete story for 40 years before she put out her first record. To be, as she was told, "too short, too old, too black, too fat", and break down all these barriers in an industry that can be quite superficial at times, I think that's inspiring.
It's easy to get a little bit down at times about how things come about, especially in the music and entertainment industry. It's a good thing to check yourself when you think about people like that.
Liza Lim, composer
One of the biggest formative influences on my becoming a composer was my high school music teacher: Ros McMillan. This was at PLC in Melbourne in the late 70s.
There at the school I remember hearing contemporary works by Penderecki and Berio, as well as local jazz improvising musicians like Brian Brown and Tony Gould and Bob Sedergreen. I was also really into John Cage and Yoko Ono as a teenager.
Vidyamala Burch, mindfulness advocate
My thinking was changed by a woman at my very first Buddhist retreat. We were in a group together and at that point I was quite blocked. I didn't have access to my emotions. Someone else in the group was talking about something quite painful and she sat there as a complete embodiment of empathy. She had tears streaming down her face.
There was no sentimentality, there was no rescuing, but it was complete and utter empathy. For me that was completely awesome, because I could not imagine feeling like that. And I thought: it's possible.
Topics: women, feminism, author, arts-and-entertainment
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