International Women’s Day 2024: Women Who Have Shattered Glass Ceilings

Modern Nigerian women are shattering glass ceilings and breaking new records.
Today is International Women’s Day, and if there’s one thing Nigerian women always do in recent years, is break records.
Glass ceilings are invisible barriers women encounter. However, No matter the field—cooking, music, movies, or sports—Nigerian women shine through every time.

Here are five Nigerian women who have broken world records recently:
Funke Akindele:
Funke Akindele holds the record for the highest-grossing Nollywood movie of all time in Nigeria. Interestingly, the top three highest-grossing movies of all time in Nigeria were made by Funke Akindele. Her movie “A Tribe Called Judah” achieved this feat in December 2023 (₦1,404,187,806), surpassing the previous record held by her own film “Battle on Buka Street ((668,423,0560)
Funke Akindele’s accomplishment is a significant milestone for the Nigerian film industry.

Asisat Oshoala
Asisat Oshoala might not have a fancy Guinness World Record (yet!), but she’s dominating the world of football.

Oshoala holds the record for winning the CAF Women’s Player of the Year award a whopping six times! That’s right, she’s been the best female footballer in Africa for years—no big deal.

In 2022, Oshoala became the first African woman ever nominated for the Ballon d’Or, one of the most prestigious awards in football! Talk about being a legend.

Oshoala made history at the 2023 World Cup by becoming the first African player (man or woman!) to score goals in three different World Cups!

Hilda Baci
Hilda Baci previously held the Guinness World Record for the longest cooking marathon (individual), but it has since been surpassed. In May 2023, she cooked for 93 hours and 11 minutes, breaking the previous record by over eight hours.

As of today, the record belongs to Irish chef Alan Fisher, who achieved a cooking marathon lasting 119 hours and 57 minutes in November 2023.

What makes Hilda Baci special is that after she set a new record, she set a cooking marathon to crave; barely a month goes by without someone trying to break a cookathon record.

Tobi Amusan
Remember Tobi Amusa? Tobi broke the internet when she ran the hurdling 100 metres in a mind-blowing 12.12 seconds at the World Athletic Championship. Not only is she the world record holder, but she’s also the Commonwealth and African champion for the 100m hurdles three times (2021, 2022, and 2023) and has a three-year Diamond League champion streak.

In January 2024, she smashed the African record for the 60-metre hurdles at the Astana Indoor Meet in Kazakhstan with a scorching 7.77 seconds.

Tems
Tems rose to popularity after being featured on Wizkid’s hit “Essence” in 2020. That song was so popular that it got nominated for a Grammy and even ended up with a remix featuring Justin Bieber.

Tems didn’t stop there. She went on to win her first Grammy in 2023 for her part in Future’s song “Wait for U” with Drake.

Tems is also the first Nigerian female artist to be nominated for an Oscar, thanks to her work on Rihanna’s “Lift Me Up” from the Black Panther sequel, “Wakanda Forever.”

Here’s where Tems starts rewriting history:
First Nigerian and African woman to win Best International Act at the BET Awards (2022).
First Nigerian artist to debut at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Wait For U” (2022).
The first female artist to ever top the Billboard US Afrobeat charts with her solo song “Free Mind” (2022).
The first Nigerian woman to be honoured with Billboard’s Women in Music Award.

Pulse.ng