Dame Deborah James and Sue Gray claim spots on Vogue’s 2022 power list
The annual list this year celebrates women who have shown great resilience.
Dame Deborah James, civil servant Sue Gray and Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe feature on British Vogue’s list of influential women.
The Vogue 25 list celebrates women “shaping 2022 and beyond” through work, culture and society.
This year, editors said they wanted to highlight women who showed resilience despite going through “unimaginable ordeals”.
Dame Deborah, who died in June after being diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2016, was praised for raising more than £7 million for cancer research in her final months.
Vogue said “her unrivalled campaigning will continue to impact countless lives”.
As the senior civil servant tasked with investigating whether lockdown rules were broken in Downing Street during the pandemic, Ms Gray held a “uniquely challenging and high-profile job”.
Her final report blamed “failures of leadership and judgement” for allowing alcohol-fuelled gatherings when millions of people across the country were unable to see friends and family.
Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian charity worker, was detained in Iran under charges of espionage from 2016 until her release in March 2022.
She is described as “the embodiment of resilience”.
The list also features the Queen, who celebrated her Platinum Jubilee this year after 70 years on the throne.
Vogue said: “Truly inimitable, as we tentatively begin to look to the future, there is one known certainty: never will there be a queen, or king, as revered as our reigning monarch.”
Other figures to make the list include Hollywood star Dame Emma Thompson, Chanel boss Leena Nair, broadcaster Mariella Frostrup and Unite general secretary Sharon Graham.
Actress Jodie Comer, best known for starring in Killing Eve, also appears on the list, with Vogue saying she has “the world at her feet – and all of us watching”.
US Open champion Emma Raducanu also claims a spot for her “relentless drive and refreshing frankness, particularly in regards to her mental health”.
– The Vogue 25 list in full:
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, charity worker
PinkPantheress, singer-songwriter
Baroness Amos, politician and diplomat
Carla Denyer, co-leader, Green Party
Sharon Graham, general secretary, Unite
Victoria Beckham, fashion designer
Nensi Dojaka, fashion designer
Sharon Chuter, founder, Uoma Beauty
Jodie Comer, actress
Mariella Frostrup, broadcaster and campaigner
Florence Knight, chef
Leena Nair, chief executive, Chanel
Donna Ockenden, midwife
Sue Gray, civil servant
Deborah James, campaigner
The Queen
Jebina Yasmin Islam, campaigner
Sonia Boyce, artist
Emma Raducanu, tennis player
Emma Thompson, actress
Kishani Widyaratna, publisher
Sophie Smith Galer, journalist
Jemma Tadd, head of fashion, eBay UK
Alex Mahon, chief executive, Channel 4
Olia Hercules, chef and campaigner
