Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Winfrey at the 2015 Oscar red carpet.

### Occupation

Host of The Oprah Winfrey Show (1986–2011), Chairwoman and CEO of Harpo Productions (1986–present), Chairwoman, CEO, and CCO of the Oprah Winfrey Network (2011–present), Actress, Author

Oprah Winfrey, ((born **Orpah Gail Winfrey**; January 29, 1954) is an American media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthropist. She is best known for her talk show *The Oprah Winfrey Show*, which was the highest-rated television program of its kind in history and was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2011 in Chicago, Illinois.

## Early Life

Winfrey was born into poverty in rural Mississippi to a teenage single mother and later raised in an inner-city Milwaukee neighborhood. She was molested during her childhood and early teens and became pregnant at 14; her son died in infancy.

After Winfrey's birth, her mother traveled north and Winfrey spent her first six years living in rural poverty with her maternal grandmother, Hattie Mae (Presley) Lee (April 15, 1900 – February 27, 1963), who was so poor that Winfrey often wore dresses made of potato sacks. Her grandmother taught her to read before the age of three and took her to the local church, where she was nicknamed "The Preacher" for her ability to recite Bible verses.

Winfrey has stated she was molested by her cousin, uncle, and a family friend, starting when she was nine years old, something she first announced to her viewers on a 1986 episode of her TV show regarding sexual abuse. When Winfrey discussed the alleged abuse with family members at age 24, they reportedly refused to believe her account.

Her mother sent her to live with the man she calls her father, Vernon Winfrey, a barber in Tennessee. Vernon was strict but encouraging on her and made her education a priority. She became an honors student, was voted Most Popular Girl, and joined her high school speech team at East Nashville High School, placing second in the nation in dramatic interpretation. She landed a job in radio while still in high school and began co-anchoring the local evening news at the age of 19. Her emotional ad-lib delivery eventually got her transferred to the daytime talk show arena, and after boosting a third-rated local Chicago talk show to first place, she launched her own production company and became internationally syndicated. After graduating high school, Oprah secured a full scholarship to a historically black institution, Tennessee State University, where she studied communication.

## Women Empowerment

Her belief *“that education is the most important gift you could ever give to anyone,” led*Oprah to her support of several women empowerment organizations aimed at improving the quality of life for women and helping to boost their confidence. Two of these organizations are ***Women for Women International**,* a group that supports the financial, educational, and interpersonal needs of women survivors of war, poverty and injustice, and ***Girl Effect***, a movement working to end poverty in adolescent women by building confidence, empowering them and providing access to education and services. But her most well-known women empowerment endeavor is her ***Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls***, a world-class school for girls in South Africa for grades 7 through 12 built in 2007 with the hope that the students who finish their studies there will continue their educational paths and eventually transform their communities and countries. Her dream to build a school started from the love and respect she had for Nelson Mandela. This past year 10 of the girls from the academy graduated from some of the top U.S. colleges.

At the 2018 Golden Globes, Winfrey’s speech accepting the Cecil B DeMille lifetime achievement award highlighted women that are speaking out on women that have been sexually abused and assaulted and showed her support for the #metoo movement.

## Activism

Oprah is one of the most famous women in the country who have not only served as role models for modern-day womanhood, but have worked hard for women's rights through outreach, policy, charity, and activism. She stated that there is no job or amount of money in the world that protects women from sexism and male violence, so actually the voices of wealthy actresses *do* matter in all of this. there are millions of women the world doesn’t hear from, and that the world forgets, because they aren’t beautiful and famous. But divide and conquer is not a strategy that will achieve anything for women, as a whole. And women, as a whole, are who we are fighting for. Rape is not more tolerable inside Hollywood than out. And while we can — and must — talk about class and race divisions that make some women’s lives much harder than others’, we need not abandon anyone in the process.

## Achievement

At the age of 41, Winfrey had a net worth of $340 million and replaced Bill Cosby as the only African American on the *Forbes 400,* Winfrey is believed to be the richest African American of the 20th century. There has been a course taught at the University of Illinois focusing on Winfrey's business acumen, namely: "History 298: Oprah Winfrey, the Tycoon". Winfrey was the highest paid television entertainer in the United States in 2006, earning an estimated $260 million during the year, by 2008, her yearly income had increased to $275 million.

Winfrey was called "arguably the world's most powerful woman" by CNN and Time.com, "arguably the most influential woman in the world" by *The American Spectator*, "one of the 100 people who most influenced the 20th Century" and "one of the most influential people" from 2004 to 2011 by *TIME*. Winfrey is the only person in the world to have appeared in the latter list on ten occasions. She is also the recipient of the highest civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama in 2013.

## Notable Works

* Launched her own television network, OWN
* Author of The Wisdom of Sundays: Life-Changing Insights from Super Soul Conversations, What I Know for Sure, The Uncommon Wisdom of Oprah Winfrey: A Portrait in Her Own Words, etc...

## References

https://www.lovehappensmag.com/blog/women-empowerment-oprah-winfrey/

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/jan/08/oprah-winfreys-speech-marks-a-shift-for-the-golden-globes-and-for-women

https://www.forbes.com/sites/janeclairehervey/2018/01/08/how-oprah-and-hollywoods-most-powerful-women-artists-reclaimed-the-golden-globes/#25dc5ad87a5b

http://www.feministcurrent.com/2018/01/10/im-not-celebrity-culture-oprah/