10 Scotswomen who changed the decade

• JK Rowling. Picture: PA

JK Rowling

It is hard to think of a more powerful female figure to have emerged from Scotland in the past decade than JK Rowling. In 2000, Rowling was cementing her position as the world's most popular children's author with her fourth Harry Potter book, which broke all literary sales records in both the US and the UK. By 2007, Forbes magazine had ranked her the 48th most powerful celebrity in the world – not just for her enormous impact on child literacy but for her philanthropic work. Her Volant Charitable Trust funds disadvantaged children and MS research. She is a vocal president of One Parent Families, and successfully campaigned for a law change in Romania concerning caged beds for orphans. Whatever she turns her hand to, Rowling has proved she is capable of effecting real change on a global scale.

Olivia Giles

Olivia Giles doesn't like the word brave, yet few can describe her without using the word. In 2002, the Edinburgh lawyer was struck down by meningococcal septicaemia. Gangrene quickly set in across her arms and lower legs, and both her hands and feet were amputated. Adapting to life as a quadruple amputee, she turned her considerable energy to helping others – giving talks and raising awareness about meningitis and limb disability. Two years ago she founded her charity, 500 Miles, which now runs a Prosthetic and Orthotic Centre in Malawi that fits amputees with prosthetic arms and legs, as well as two similar projects in Zambia. Her courage, and, yes, bravery, have inspired many thousands of amputees, while her desire to help those less fortunate than herself continues to help many more.

Susan Boyle

Ask most Americans today to name a famous Scottish woman, and the answer you are most likely to receive is "Susan Boyle". From the now famous YouTube clip that made her a household name overnight to the extraordinary album sales (hers is the biggest selling debut album of all time in the UK), 2009 has undoubtedly been Boyle's year. But away from the record-breaking statistics, Boyle has achieved something no-one else has managed in a year otherwise blighted by war, recession and global warming. By "dreaming a dream", Boyle has brought hope to millions around the globe with her simple ambition – an extraordinary feat in today's cynical world.

Catriona Matthew

When Catriona Matthew won the British Open in August of this year, it was a victory not just for Scotland, but for mothers everywhere. Because not only was Matthew by far the best player on the green, she had also given birth to her second child just 11 weeks earlier.

In a year that has, in the wake of the Tiger Woods scandal, proved a difficult one for men's golf, Matthew, 40, is proving that women are just as good on the fairways as their male counterparts.

It's clearly a sentiment that Matthew believes in passionately, and has done since her early days in the game (she reigned as the Scottish Girls Champion back in 1986) and that was cemented by the announcement this week that she is to become a vice-president of the Scottish Ladies Golf Association from 2010. "Hopefully," she said, "I can help to generate more interest in girls' and women's golf." Indeed.

Karen Vousden

Vousden became director of the Beatson Institute for Cancer Research in Glasgow in 2002, cementing her place as one of the country's top cancer research scientists and overseeing a 15 million expansion of the institute. Her work has focused on the tumour suppressor protein p53 – sometimes known as the "guardian of the genome", which plays a critical role in preventing the development of tumours.

Vousden's research now focuses on investigating the functions of p53 that contribute to its ability to prevent cancer progression. Ambitious and enthusiastic, she hopes ultimately to be able to find ways to reactivate p53 for cancer therapy.

Carol Ann Duffy

The first Scot, the first woman, the first open bisexual – Carol Ann Duffy's appointment in May of this year as poet laureate broke down so many barriers it was almost embarrassing. But Duffy has never been one to sit quietly in the corner, particularly when it comes to poetry. Her accessible verse, which confronts issues ranging from gender to sexuality to violence to race, have made her a favourite in schools, and her writing has opened up the world of poetry to many thousands of children. Duffy has also tasked herself with increasing awareness and understanding of poetry through workshops, websites and in her role as poetry professor at Manchester University. In keeping with her have-a-go attitude, her first official poem as laureate was a sonnet about the MPs expenses scandal.

Elish Angiolini

If ever there was a woman who looked down at the rows of glass ceilings she'd shattered and laughed, it was Angiolini. A bright spark from an early age, the Noughties were undoubtedly her decade. In November 2001 she was appointed to the post of Solicitor General for Scotland. The appointment made her the first woman, the first procurator-fiscal, and the first solicitor to hold that post. In 2006, she became the first woman Lord Advocate. Since her appointment she has focused much of her energies on supporting youth courts and the domestic violence court in Glasgow, and last year won an award for leadership in the area of domestic violence from the charity Zero Tolerance. She also instigated a recent review into the investigation and prosecution of rape and sexual crimes that could have a significant impact on prosecution practices for many years to come.

Ann Gloag

Scotland's second-richest woman and the co-founder alongside brother Brian Souter of bus company Stagecoach, Gloag, a former nurse, has spent much of the last decade focused on philanthropic work. She is one of Scotland's biggest charitable donors, and has spent much time and money (around 4 million) in kitting out a Mercy Ship that tours the coast of Africa with six operating theatres and 95 beds. She has even been known to work as a nurse on the ship herself. She also runs an orphanage in Nairobi and has built a successful school in the city – the Jonathan Gloag Academy, named after her son, who committed suicide in 1999, aged 28. Her latest project – Freedom From Fistula – aims to heal thousands of African women who have suffered serious complications during pregnancy. Her efforts have helped redefine the word philanthropy for the modern age.

Tammy Kane

When Kane was in her final year at school, her brother Christopher saved up his pocket money in order to buy her a pink rubber Versace dress to wear at her school dance. It was the beginning of a lifelong relationship based on a mutual love of fashion.

Christopher Kane's collaborator, business partner and muse, she is the Donatella Versace to his Gianni, and nothing from the Christopher Kane label – the most successful Scottish fashion house of the decade – reaches the rails without Tammy's approval.

Her influence on Noughties trends such as the body con dress should not be underestimated.

Nicola Sturgeon

Whether you agree with her politics or not, few can doubt the political talents of the young MSP from Irvine who has risen over the past decade to become the most powerful woman in Scottish politics. She became an MSP in 1999, making a name for herself as the SNP's spokeswoman on justice, and later on education.

In 2004, having backed down from a move to run for the SNP leadership herself, she was elected depute leader of the party alongside Alex Salmond. With Salmond still in Westminster, she spent the next three years as leader of the party in the Scottish Parliament, clashing vigorously with former first minister Jack McConnell.

As deputy first minister and health minister, Sturgeon's profile has continued to rise, and she has been particularly praised for her recent handling of the swine flu epidemic. Aged just 39, her name is set to be at the forefront of Scottish politics for a long time to come.