Footballer Steph Houghton joins the Queen, Dr Jenny Harries and Rihanna on Vogue's list of the most powerful women

The annual Vogue 25 list selects “the women of the moment who are leading us through 2020 with prescience, power and poise”.

This year’s edition, published in print and online today, Friday, August 7, seeks to highlight how, during the coronavirus pandemic, “as priorities shifted so did the spotlight”.

Defender Houghton, 32, from South Hetton, started her playing career at Sunderland before moving on to Leeds United and Arsenal and now plays for Manchester City, with 81 senior caps and 11 goals to her name as an England player.

She was awarded the MBE in the 2016 New Year’s Honours List for her services to football.

Vogue’s feature notes the Lionesses’ achievement at reaching the semi-finals of last year’s World Cup, helping to give the woman’s game a boost in popularity.

It adds: “As England captain, Steph Houghton is the figurehead of the women’s game and is using her standing to also raise awareness – and put an end to – period poverty.

"Her return to the pitch is eagerly awaited.”

The piece suggests the pandemic has “deepened” the Queen’s relevance.

The Vogue 25 list in full:

– Anne Mensah, vice president of original series, Netflix

– Asma Khan, chef

– Bernardine Evaristo, novelist

– Caroline Rush, chief executive of the British Fashion Council

– Charlotte Tilbury, beauty innovator

– Daisy Edgar-Jones, actor

– Dawn Butler, Labour MP

– Dr Jenny Harries, deputy chief medical officer

– Emily Maitlis, broadcaster

– Emma Revie, chief executive of The Trussell Trust

– Florence Pugh, actor

– Frances O’Grady, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress

– June Sarpong, director of creativity diversity at the BBC

– Liza Bilal and Naomi Smith, Black Lives Matter activists

– Maria Balshaw, director of Tate

– Michaela Coel, writer and actor

– Munroe Bergdorf, model and activist

– Nicole Jacobs, domestic abuse commissioner

– Pippa Crerar, journalist

– Prof Sarah Gilbert, vaccinologist

– Rihanna, businesswoman

– Rosh Mahtani, designer

– Silvana Tenreyro, economist

– Steph Houghton, footballer

– The Queen.