Looking back at the last thirty-five years of Vanity Fair stories on women by women with an
introduction by the magazine s editor in chief Radhika Jones Gail Sheehy on Hillary Clinton.
Ingrid Sischy on Nicole Kidman. Jacqueline Woodson on Lena Waithe. Leslie Bennetts on Michelle
Obama. And two Maureens (Orth and Dowd) on two Tinas (Turner and Fey). Vanity Fair s Women on
Women features a selection of the best profiles essays and columns on female subjects written
by female contributors to the magazine over the past thirty-five years. From the viewpoint of
the female gaze come penetrating profiles on everyone from Gloria Steinem to Princess Diana to
Whoopi Goldberg to essays on workplace sexual harassment (by Bethany McLean) to a post #MeToo
reassessment of the Clinton scandal (by Monica Lewinsky). Many of these pieces constitute the
first draft of a larger cultural narrative. They tell a singular story about female icons and
identity over the last four decades and about the magazine as it has evolved under the
editorial direction of Tina Brown Graydon Carter and now Radhika Jones who has written a
compelling introduction. When Vanity Fair s inaugural editor Frank Crowninshield took the
helm of the magazine in 1914 his mission statement declared We hereby announce ourselves as
determined and bigoted feminists. Under Jones s leadership Vanity Fair continues the
publication s proud tradition of highlighting women s voices and all the many ways they define
our culture.
