11 reasons pop culture in 2015 was ruled by women

This was the Year of the Woman.

Not only because Angela Merkel showed how cold capitalism could have a heart and how great democracy could be.

Not only because Anne Marie Slaughter had the courage to admit what women in the workforce have been feeling ever since they were told to lean in - that you cannot have it all, that something does give, but that there is no option. Families have to change, parental roles have to be transformed, society has to be more accepting if one half of humanity is to have any shot at a worthwhile, full life.

Not only because Hillary Clinton, with all her faults, showed why an America led by Donald Trump would be a global nightmare.

And not only because everywhere you turned in popular culture, women were telling their stories, their way. So compelling was it, that even a former Olympic champion in real life and an Oscar winner in reel life showed us why being a woman was so mad, bad, and dangerous to know. Yes, that's you Caitlyn Jenner and Eddie Redmayne in The Danish Girl.

As for me, I couldn't move an inch this year without bumping into an interesting woman. Here's my list of 11 wonderful women, in fiction and fact, who made 2015 unforgettable.

#1. The Girl on the Train

So she lied. So she was overweight. So she was addicted to alcohol. But she was also kind, perceptive and a real sister in spirit. Paula Hawkins' acutely drawn heroine was supposed to be 2015's Gone Girl, but she was much more. A woman who had been battered into believing she was less than she was, and yet one who didn't give up on herself.

#2. Devi played by Richa Chadha in Masaan

There she was calmly telling her father that she wanted to sleep with a man to see what it was all about. That she was not ashamed to being busted in a so-called raid. That she was not satisfied with a government job. That she wanted to study further even if it meant leaving her town behind. "Don't I fit in anywhere?" her father asks her in anguish. She is comforting but doesn't give in. She will do what she wants. When she wants.

#3. Datto played by Kangana Ranaut in Tanu Weds Manu Returns

Kusum Kumari Sangwan aka Datto, sports quota student of Ramjas College and state level athlete, from Jhajjhar district, Haryana where they either prevent girls from being born or strangle them when they show signs of independence. She is a sportswoman, who either aims to come first or nothing at all. "I don't believe in consolation prizes," she says. After watching her spirit-lifting and emotion-drenched performance, neither do we.

#4. Juhi Chaturvedi

Yes, the creator of Piku, was a real life Piku. A former advertising professional, her pragmatic heroine who takes care of her home, her ageing fusspot father, a thriving consultancy, and even finds time to flirt with Irrfan's Raja was one of the most thrilling discoveries this year. A rare voice of a woman who wrote as she spoke and felt, Piku was a triumph of spirit, as well as a tribute to all the fathers who are often the wind beneath the wings of their daughter's finest ambitions (Saina Nehwal, anyone?).

#5. Amy Schumer

She could be vulgar, she could be mouthy, she could be downright pornographic. But whether she was letting down Bill Hader (yet again) in Trainwreck or doing the most outrageous things on Inside Amy Schumer, she was large, loud and lascivious. Sample this: "I get labelled a sex comic but if a guy went up on stage and pulled out his d***, everybody would say he's a thinker." Yes!

#6. Brie Larson in Room

She was the sister in Trainwreck and the mother who raises a child in captivity in the gripping Room, the most luminous in a series of gorgeous performances by women in Oscar-worthy roles this year. Cate Blanchett romancing Rooney Mara with so much grace and delicacy in Carol, Jennifer Lawrence channelling her inner cicada in Joy, Saoirse Ronan's conflicted Irish woman in Brooklyn, women played complex characters usually reserved only for Meryl Streep and Julianne Moore.

#7. The women of American television

They saved the world (Homeland), solved gigantic terrorist conspiracies (Quantico), played ravaged superheroes (Jessica Jones), romanced the president of the United States (Scandal), manipulated the POTUS (House of Cards), stutted their way out of jail (Empire) and wanted to turn their own daughters into spies (The Americans). We loved them and couldn't get enough of them.

#8. Lady Mary Crawley of Downton Abbey

She could be, as her sister said, a bitch. But as Downton Abbey came to a close, she emerged as the dowager in waiting, the true heir to a modern, functioning estate, wife of an impossibly handsome Matthew Goode (sigh!) and potential Dowager Mother to Master George. Plus no one could raise her eyebrows quite like her or wear a dress.

#9. Adele

"Hello from the other side. I must have called a thousand times." "I was wondering if after all these years you'd like to meet." Adele was back with 25, and the world couldn't get enough of her throaty voice, old-fashioned lyrics, and the operatic range. Plus she was funny, kind to her fans, fiercely protective of her private life in the Age of Kardashians. What's not to love about feeling ''younger and free, before the world fell at our feet"?

#10. Furiosa

Imperator Furiosa played with passion and rage by Charlize Theron outclassed Mad Max, which took some doing, given he was played by the muscular Tom Hardy. She scowled better than him, drove better than him, and fought better than him. What's more, she spoke almost as little in a movie that boggled the mind and shot circuited your soul. A typical exchange between Max and Furiosa will explain exactly why she was the Queen the Desert.

Imperator Furiosa: Hey. What's your name? What do I call you?

Max Rockatansky: Does it matter?

Imperator Furiosa: Fine. When I yell "fool," you drive out of here as fast as you can.

#11. The Private Life of Mrs Sharma

Finally, a fictional mother we could all identify with, perhaps down to the denouement? Ratika Kapur's fearless doctor's receptionist, wife to a Dubai-based physiotherapist, doting mother of 15-year-old and devoted daughter in law, was a revelation. As Longfellow said, "When was good, she was very, very good. When was bad, she was horrid."

Hey, just like us.

Here's to more of us in 2015.