Malala Yousafzai speaks after receiving her award during the Glamour Magazine Women of the Year event in New York, November 11, 2013. (Photo: REUTERS/Carlo Allegri)
Malala Yousafzai speaks after receiving her award during the Glamour Magazine Women of the Year event in New York, November 11, 2013. (Photo: REUTERS/Carlo Allegri)

Women from diverse professional and cultural backgrounds were honoured with the 23rd Glamour Women of the Year Awards held at Carnegie Hall in New York City on the evening of 11 November.

The 23rd annual awards by Glamour magazine, which recognise women who have done exemplary works in society, had women presenters who themselves have shown extraordinary works in their respective fields. Some of them included Lena Dunham, Oscar de la Renta, Arianna Huffington, Marina Abramovic, and Hillary Clinton.

In this year's awards, Pakistani teenager and women's rights and education activist, Malala Yousafzai has won the Women of the Year Fund honour that grants support to her fund, which works towards ensuring education for girls around the world.

In the words of Ban Ki-moon, secretary general of the United Nation, Malala Yousafzai is a Woman of the Year because "by targeting her, extremists showed what they feared most: a girl with a book. Malala embodies the power of education to build peace. She is truly a role model for the world."

Amerincan singer Barbra Streisand won Woman of the Year Lifetime Achievement award at the event.

"She's such a pivotal figure in music. As a performer, she's always been so different from everybody else around," pop star Lady Gaga said about Barbra. Gaga herself has been honoured at the 2013 gala.

Gabrielle Giffords and her husband Mark Kelly, a retired US Navy captain and NASA astronaut, were announced Couple of the Year at the Glamour Women of the Year Awards 2013. Kelly has stood by Giffords through her pain and physical suffering after she was shot in the head in 2011.

"I know what it takes to be a Woman of the Year. I see it in her every day," Mark Kelly said as he accepted the award along with his wife.

The full list of winners of the Glamour 2013 Women of the Year Awards is as below:

    1. Lady Gaga, pop singer
    1. Malala Yousafzai, activist
    1. Gabby Giffords, politician
    1. Catherine Martin, Hollywood costume designer
    1. Kerry Washington, actress
    1. Liya Kebede and Christy Turlington Burns, models and philanthropists
    1. Natalie Massenet, entrepreneur (Net-a-porter founder)
    1. Carissa Moore, Hawaiian surfer
    1. Barbra Streisand, singer
    1. Kaitlin Roig-DeBellis, kindergarten teacher who saved 15 children at Sandy Hook shooting in 2012
    1. Melinda Gates, philanthropist