Change is happening at Fortune Magazine, and it's more evident than ever when you look at the business and tech publication's last two issues, with female powerhouses covering back-to-back issues.
But that's not all. Alyson Shontell is Fortune's new editor-in-chief, the first woman to lead the nearly-century-old magazine.
"The people who were on covers when I was growing up for women's magazines, were celebrities," she said. "They were models, they're celebrated for their looks and not their brains."
Shontell served as senior technology correspondent and later as editor-in-chief, all the while navigating a changing media landscape.
"Digital media, we would come to find later, it was a much different form of media than anything that had come before," she said. "It's 24/7. There's no space restriction. You can get as creative as you want. So to be at the forefront of an industry as it's taking off and getting off the ground and helping build that from scratch ended up being great for my career as well."
Shontell's historic hire in Oct. of 2021 added to a growing list of women leading newsrooms, positions typically dominated by men.
The Washington Post named Sally Buzbee as its executive editor last May, and Alessandra Galloni also made history as Reuters' first female editor-in-chief in its 170-year history.
Reasearch led by the Reuters Institute shows that only about 21% of major print and online publications across the globe are lead by women. This, despite the fact that 40% of journalists in those markets are women.
Shontell looks at her role as serving two purposes: leading the Fortune team as media continues to evolve, while celebrating, elevating, and educating women in another field dominated by men, business.
"When you look at the list of top billionaires in the world, you equate money to power," she said. "Most of them are men. Most of them started their own companies. So if you don't give people role models to look at that aren't Elon Musk or Bill Gates then you're never going to change that power gap that exists in the world. I think that's a really important piece. How are we going to get a woman Elon Musk or Bill Gates? We have to get more women interested in business."
Shontell hopes the latest issue does just that by featuring venture capitalist Katie Haun and her efforts to build a one-billion-dollar crypto-currency firm.
Shontell, a 35-year-old mom of two, credits her own mother with being a strong female role model.
"My mom was an executive at Fannie Mae for 25 years," she said. "And seeing, knowing that it was harder for her, it's hard now, but knowing that it was harder for her and she was able to do that 30 years prior to me, I was like, well, I better do something with my life. She paved the way!"
It's an example she hopes to set for her own children and future female Fortune readers.
"I want to put forward as many role models as possible so that people can see that they can do it too," she said. "I think if you don't have that role model in front of you or you didn't have it living in your house like I did, it can be hard to imagine that kind of a life. I would just want them to see it and aim even bigger than they are right now."