‘Glamour’ to Host the 2021 Women of the Year Awards at the Iconic Rainbow Room

The first Glamour Women of the Year ceremony was held in November 1990 in New York City at the iconic Rainbow Room, 65 floors above Rockefeller Center. Editor in chief Ruth Whitney took the stage to salute all the honorees—“doers, darers, and defiers,” as she called them—who had made an impact. Women who, as that year’s special Women of the Year print issue declared, “took charge, spoke out, risked their lives, made a difference.” 

Among those honorees that November was Children’s Defense Fund founder Marian Wright Edelman, who said in her moving speech, “If you don’t like the way the world is, you change it.” Following the success of her feature film Dick Tracy and her pop anthem “Like a Prayer,” Madonna had been selected to be the magazine’s first Woman of the Year cover star. Whitney praised the singer and actor at the event, telling the crowd, “While everyone’s a celebrity for 15 minutes and media stars come and go, Madonna is still getting what she wanted, still on center stage, still top banana, still commander in chief of her own wildly successful enterprise.”

With its sweeping views of the New York City skyline, the Rainbow Room was the perfect setting for it all. Since October 1934, when the legendary event space officially opened, the location has hosted celebrities, politicians, and other notable figures beneath its iconic crystal teardrop chandelier. 

And this year, Glamour is proud to announce that the Woman of the Year Awards will return to the Rainbow Room on Monday, November 8. 

While we’re not ready to reveal the guest list quite yet, the heart of that very first WOTY remains: A moment to celebrate women who achieve amazing successes. Women who take risks, speak up for what they believe in, fight for change, and carve new paths. And when you put these incredible visionaries in a room together, great things are bound to happen. We can’t wait.