IW Features

Before she arrived to talk with IW Features, Mary Pope Maybank Hutson was looking for a pink scarf to match her jacket. She’s the picture of a well-educated, well-traveled Southern woman, and she cracked jokes about capturing her good side in photos. But beneath the hot pink nail polish, pearls, and slingback heels is a woman who treats success as inevitable and will fight impossible odds to ensure it. Hutson is president of Sweet Briar College, a women-only school in rural Virginia.

Kaillie Humphries knows what it takes to move a refrigerator at full speed. After all, the six-time Olympic medalist has spent over two decades competing in bobsled. She jolts off a starting line while pushing a sled weighing hundreds of pounds, jumps inside, and seconds later trades that brute force for enough precision to steer the sled down an icy track at speeds as high as six g’s. “It’s immediate from one to the other.

David Taylor was a Muscle Shoals, Alabama, resident and the general manager at a local Dodge dealership. A father to two daughters, he was a devoted son and husband, and an active participant in his church. At 42, his life was tragically taken when a teenage driver recklessly sped through a stop sign at 85 miles an hour, killing Taylor and spurring his grieving family into action. Together with legislators, they designed Taylor’s Law, which took effect in Alabama in 2009.

Dr. Grace Torres-Hodges never planned on practicing medicine. In fact, the first years of her career were spent in Washington, D.C., doing oceanography policy. But today, she’s on the frontlines of the medical freedom movement, advocating for direct care solutions and serving patients in her podiatry practice. Torres-Hodges owns her own podiatry practice in Pensacola, Florida, and she has almost three decades of experience as a foot and ankle surgeon as well as providing routine care.

When Linda Leary started fly fishing, most women had no choice but to trudge out to the stream in oversized, ill-fitting, and dark-colored gear made for men. After decades of this, Leary started Fishe. It’s one of only a few fishing companies making clothing and gear specifically for women. And though her designs are eye-catching and feminine, Leary shared that she has a greater mission than mere looks. “I grew up in Maine, and I used to fly fish with my dad,” Leary told IW Features.

The National Society Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) is one of America’s oldest and most respected lineage organizations. Founded in 1890 by women who were excluded from the Sons of the American Revolution, membership is limited to women not less than 18 years of age who can prove lineal descent from a Patriot who supported American independence during the Revolutionary War.

Behind every movie is a massive team of people working together to perfect a film before you see it on your television screen. One such person intimately involved in this process is Tameron Hedge, an award-winning executive producer, and one of the women behind the scenes in the American entertainment industry. Hedge has worked in film, music, and production for 35 years and is a seasoned professional in her field.

Middle Creek Elementary School is one of North Carolina’s largest elementary schools. When classes began for the 2026-2027 school year this month, parents believed that everything would be business as usual. But just one week into the school year, one dad said his children came home with alarming questions.

For many years, Dr. Leila Javidi felt stuck practicing medicine with one hand tied behind her back. The Ohio physician saw more than 20 patients a day, managed a panel of roughly 2,200 people, responded to portal messages late in the night, and spent hours coding. This pace of work left her with little room to think or simply listen to her patients and their needs.

As a detransitioner, I have publicly shared my story of gender confusion, medicalization, and return to biological reality in the hope that no more children experience what I went through. Now, a new report by Independent Women and the Center for Christian Virtue, released by the Department of Health and Human Services, documents the medical malpractice, disregard for evidence, and fraud that led to stories like mine.