IT took until the 21st century for a woman to lift the best director Oscar – Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker – and in any Hollywood rich list, women languish in the lower half.

It took until the 21st century for a woman to lift the best director Oscar -- Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker -- and in any Hollywood rich list, women languish in the lower half. In Tinseltown, like many a town, women still have a lot of catching up to do. To mark the release this week of I Don’t Know How She Does It, an adaptation of Allison Pearson’s novel about the trials of a working mother, The Herald selects its top 10 feminist movies.

His Girl Friday (1939)

Plot: Ace reporter Hildy Johnson (Rosalind Russell) tells editor and ex-husband Walter Burns (Cary Grant) she’s quitting journalism to get married and become a housewife. Given one last assignment, Hildy is reminded of the job, and the man, she’ll be leaving behind.

Credentials: In this adaptation of Hecht and MacArthur’s The Front Page, Burns is arguably more of a feminist than the ready to jack it all in Hildy, but once she returns to the frontline reporting on a condemned man’s jail break, the journalist comes back into her own.

Lip line: “I wouldn’t cover the burning of Rome for you if they were just lighting it up.” (Hildy to Walter)

Nine to Five (1980)

Plot: Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda and Dolly Parton are the office amigos giving their sexist boss (Dabney Coleman) an appraisal he’ll never forget.

Credentials: Many a working woman could recognise and sympathise with the characters of the super smart secretary (Parton); the supervisor who does the boss’s job for them (Tomlin); and the nervous newcomer returning to the workforce (Fonda). Though the comedy lost some of its bite as the picture went on, the gripes about the glass ceiling were sharply observed.

Lip line: “Workin’ nine to five what a way to make a livin’, barely gettin’ by it’s all takin’ and no givin’; They just use your mind and you never get the credit; It’s enough to drive you crazy if you let it!” (Title song)

Thelma & Louise (1991)

Plot: Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon are the pals in search of some fun who run out of places to go.

Credentials: Like many a feminist movie it was directed by a man, Ridley Scott, but Davis and Sarandon made it their own from the off. Funny, smart, alternately vulnerable and feisty, Thelma and Louise became the poster women for every woman who wanted to drive off into the sunset, just not as they did. Also stars a youthful Brad Pitt as eye candy.

Lip line: “I’ve had it up to my ass with sedate.” (Thelma)

All About My Mother (1999)

Plot: A heartbroken single mother rebuilds her life by caring for others, including a pregnant nun (played by Penelope Cruz).

Credentials: Spanish director Pedro Almodovar has a reputation for putting women at the front and centre of his films, including his latest, The Skin I Live In. Among his favourite leading ladies have been Cruz (Live Flesh, All About My Mother, Broken Embraces, Volver) and Carmen Maura (Women on the Verge of A Nervous Breakdown, Matador, etc).

Lip line: “How could I own a real Chanel when there is so much poverty in the world?” (Agrado)

Alien (1979)

Plot: If you have a problem in space, if no-one else can help, ditch thoughts of the A-Team boys and call for Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley.

Credentials: Ridley Scott again, this time helming a science fiction thriller that had a square-jawed woman as heroine. Wherever male astronauts fear to tread in the hunt for alien predators, you’ll find armed and dangerous Ellen Ripley, a character who went on to two more adventures in space. Ripley made it to number eight in the American Film Institute’s 100 Heroes and Villains list, ahead of Han Solo at number 14 and Dirty Harry at 17.

Lip line: “How do we kill it Ash? There’s gotta be a way of killing it. How?” (Ripley)

The Accused (1988)

Plot: A gang rape victim (Jodie Foster) seeks justice with the aid of a lawyer (Kelly McGillis), only to find it is her reputation which is put on trial.

Credentials: A blistering two-hander from Foster and McGillis in a film that doesn’t flinch from showing the brutality of the crime and the sometimes rough justice to be found in the courts. Foster deservedly walked away with a best actress Oscar for her portrayal of Sarah Tobias, a tiny, beaten down woman who throws herself into the fight of her life.

Lip line: “If that’s the best you could do, then your best sucks.” (Tobias to lawyer)

Raise the Red Lantern (1991)

Plot: A young woman (Gong Li) is pressed into marrying for money, only to find the price to be paid is too high.

Credentials: Set in 1920s China, Zhang Yimou’s epic drama, nominated for a best foreign film Oscar, raises the curtain on the world of concubines, finding rivalry, tyranny and heartbreak as they compete for the red lantern and the attention of the “master”. In this arrangement, as Yimou’s film makes clear, the winners are never the women.

Lip line: “She has the face of Buddha and the heart of a scorpion.” (Of one of the “wives”)

The Color Purple (1985)

Plot: Born in the deep south as the 20th century begins, Celie Harris Johnson (Whoopi Goldberg) seems destined to have been put on this earth to suffer.

Credentials: The story of downtrodden Celie, glamorous Shug, brave Sofia and noble Nettie has it all -- tears, joy, more tears -- and director Steven Spielberg doesn’t so much pluck the heartstrings as snap them at times. Outstanding performances from the women, with Oprah Winfrey -- and her right hook in particular -- proving a revelation.

Lip line: “I’m poor, black, I might even be ugly, but dear God, I’m here! I’m here!” (Celie)

Erin Brockovich (2000)

Plot: Toting a baby on her hip with another two by her side, single mother Erin Brockovich rides into legal battle against a big business accused of contaminating a town’s water supply.

Credentials: Based on a true story, the real-life EB couldn’t have had a better representative on the screen than Julia Roberts. Directed by Steven Soderbergh and working from a script by Susannah Grant, Roberts’s Erin is a one-woman hurricane, sweeping all before her as she fights for justice, and a better life for her family.

Lip line: “For the first time in my life, I got people respecting me. Please, don’t ask me to give it up.” (Brockovich)

Kick-Ass (2010)

Plot: Aaron Johnson plays the ordinary Joe, or in his case Dave, who decides to be a nerd by day and a superhero by night. Among the other heroes and heroines he encounters is Chloe Moretz’s Hit Girl.

Credentials: A controversial choice, given the ripeness of Hit Girl’s language and her fondness for extreme violence, but Matthew Vaughn’s adaptation of Mark Millar’s comic book, with a screenplay by Jane Goldman, at least gave the world a girl character who wasn’t afraid to do what it said in the film title.

Lip line: “I never ‘play’.” (Hit Girl)