Wonder Woman of the Week: Sophia Bush

This week’s Wonder Woman is someone who has made a name for herself for her acting career, her social advocacy, and her outspoken support of women’s rights issues. This week’s spotlight is a woman who exemplifies the attitude of Fourth Wave Feminism with her approach to inclusion, her contribution as a role model to young women in her career, and as an advocate for women’s issues around the globe. The Wonder Woman of the Week is actress Sophia Bush.

Sophia Bush was born in Pasadena, California in 1982 and was raised by a father well known for his photography in Hollywood. Bush enjoyed a childhood in privilege, attending private schools and graduating from a great high school. But while Bush may have been defined by a childhood of privilege, her adulthood was marked by the life of a woman who had to work hard to take control of her own career. [1]

After a string of initial small roles in film and television, actress Sophia Bush began to take on the power of self-definition. Her confidence in her career gave her more say in the roles she would take on leading her to define for herself where her career would take her. “I gravitate toward women who are strong and capable,” spoke Bush in an interview with Self Magazine, “and who are also not ashamed of their flaws and who screw up and make mistakes.” Bush also spoke in the interview about the power of television and film in bringing real-world issues that can sometimes be hard to quantify to peoples’ attention. [2]

While actress Sophia Bush was making a name for herself on the screen, she was also making a name for herself in the women’s rights movement as a staunch advocate for the empowerment of girls. In 2016, Bush teamed up with a beauty brand EcoTools to start a conversation about next generation of feminism, the relativism of beauty, the importance of female solidarity, and the universality of womanhood. The partnership’s main goal is to help fund charities that support girls’ education in a world where 50 million women are denied basic education. [3]

Beyond the initial campaign for women’s education, Sophia Bush spoke candidly in an interview with the Huffington Post about her concerns with the state of women’s rights in the United States. “There are hundreds of museums in the United States and there’s not a Women’s History Museum,” she stated. She went on to discuss the importance of an existentialist approach to understanding the diversity of women in the country and the diversity in the range of issues women in various careers face; the hypocrisy of people calling out Hillary Clinton supporters for voting along gender lines when nobody cares when people vote for men; the alarming rates of sexual assault cases- one in five women- in the United States; and the importance of all people- regardless of career, race, gender, etc.- in the fight for gender equality. [4]

Actress Sophia Bush grew under a childhood of privilege to become an adult who understood the plight of the oppressed and understood the struggle of women in a country and a world in which they deserved more than they received; and went on to fight not only for control of her own life in the male dominated world of Hollywood, but for the rights of women in a male dominated world. Her campaigns for the education of girls across the globe and for her social advocacy for the rights of women in the workplace, in politics, and in their own anatomy make her a hero to millions of young people.

“Sophia Bush Biography.” IMDb. Amazon; nd. Web. 28 December 2016.

Bahadur, Nina. “How Sophia Bush’s Latest Project Is Empowering Girls Worldwide.” Self. Conde Nast; 15 March 2016. Web. 28 December 2016.

Sicardi, Arabelle. “Sophia Bush Says That She’s Always Been a Feminist.” Teen Vogue. Conde Nast; 8 March 2016. Web. 28 December 2016.

“Sophia Bush Shares Her Thoughts On Hilary Clinton, Feminism & Anti-Abortion Laws.” Girl Talk HQ. np; 28 March 2016. Web. 28 December 2016.