Fergus Finlay: In a year of strong women, Gisele Pelicot stood out in 2024

In a year in which we may have seen the start of the gradual decline and death of democracy, there have been some women who have given us hope

Gisele Pelicot succeeded, through her own courage and determination, in bringing her husband and the rest of the men who raped her to justice. File photo: Miguel Medina / AFP via Getty Images

2024 was to be the year of women. Above all, it was to be the year when Kamala Harris emerged from almost nowhere, beat back a bully, and saved American democracy.

I still don’t know exactly what happened. Maybe she failed. Maybe she was asked to do the impossible. Whatever, I will never see her as anything but gutsy and honourable. Her performance in the debate against Trump nailed him to the wall. In any normal election in any normal democracy, it would have been the end.