Yesterday, a guy friend of mine mentioned that on Monday night, while serving as a seat-filler near the VIP section at the Glamour Women of the Year awards ceremony, he mooned over Eric Dane and stalked Ben Affleck a bit. I won't share what he had to say about the aforementioned gentlemen, but it did encourage me a take a look at the women who were honored.

Now, for the record, I'll tell you that I've always kind of liked Glamour magazine, although I have not read it recently. I remember, however, that when it used to be one of my guilty-pleasure travel reads, they had features about out lesbians surprisingly often. In general, the magazine seems to be willing to feature strong women, and not just ones who exude traditional glamour.

The women honored on Monday were praised, of course, for their individual accomplishments, but they represent a range of opportunities, many of which are newly open to women. Let's take a look at a few of the honorees and admire how cool they are. (You can explore the full list here.)

Toni Morrison — “The Voice of Our Time”

Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison has written some of the most haunting and powerful novels of the 20th century: The Bluest Eye, Beloved, Sula. She was the only black child in her kindergarten class — and the only student who entered kindergarten already knowing how to read. Throughout her education, she read everything she could and noticed one glaring omission:

"What about young black girls who had never been the center of anybody's literary intention? ... No one had written them yet, so I wrote them.”

The Female Heads of the Ivy League — “Heads of the Class”

There are now four female presidents of the Ivy League. Four. Count them. Four. It's not that long ago that women were not even permitted to attend these schools, much less lead them. While women are still underrepresented in the sciences, elite educational opportunities for women have opened up dramatically in the past few decades, and Amy Gutmann, Drew Faust, Ruth Simmons and Shirley Tlghman exemplify the heights to which young women can reasonably aspire. What's more, they signal leadership likely to be committed to preventing gender from being an obstacle to achievement.

Lorena Ochoa — “The Champ”

Lorena Ochoa, the top-ranked woman golfer in the world, was the first woman both to play and to win a tournament at the Old Course at St. Andrews. The course was historically closed to women, but she has certainly broken the barriers. Ochoa opened the Lorena Ochoa Foundation, which enables 240 children in her hometown of Guadalajara, Mexico to get an education, and she's opened two gold academies to make gold accessible to kids. How much does she rock?

Nancy Pelosi — “Madam Speaker”

Regardless of how you feel about Nancy Pelosi's politics, she is the first woman to be second in line for the presidency of the United States. Pelosi did not enter politics until later in life and is now the highest ranking female politician in the history of the United States. And that is amazing. As a former San Francisco Bay Area resident, I love Bay Area women politicians (Pelosi, Barbara Boxer, Diane Feinstein) and I'm pretty excited to have one of them so close to running the whole show. But even if she were a politician of a different stripe, I'd still be excited about the opportunity she represents. As she said when she was elected, this is “an historic moment for the women of America ... For our daughters and our granddaughters, now the sky is the limit. Anything is possible for them.”

This is just a smattering of the honorees. Check out the rest of them for additional inspiration and take a moment to share who your Woman of the Year is.