It seemed like everyone and their mother was celebrating the Y chromosome last night at Glamour magazine's 2009 Women of the Year awards ceremony: Rihanna's family was up from Barbados, a delegation of Iranian equal-rights activists made the trip, and the First Lady and the President appeared in separate video clips to give respective shout-outs to the Girl Scouts and the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., Susan Rice.

Following a performance by Estelle, a string of inspiring honorees took to the Carnegie Hall stage. "The adult version of me is still surprised that I'm here in front of you. However, the 10-year-old version of me is not," comedienne Amy Poehler joked. Like many of the evening's speakers, she offered some wisdom to the youth sitting in the upper balcony: "If boys say something that's not funny, you don't have to laugh." (Stella McCartney's advice: "Never wear a skirt this short.")

Presenting to Serena Williams, Tyra Banks mentioned a recent encounter with the tennis star's wax doppelgänger at Madame Tussauds. "I started squeezing the biceps, squeezing the legs, squeezing the booty. Oh my God, I was in heaven!" Thankfully, President Bill Clinton offered a very different sort of introduction for Maya Angelou. The 81-year-old poet then recited from "Phenomenal Woman": "It's in the reach of my arms / The span of my hips, / The stride of my step, / The curl of my lips." Angelou also had a note for the gents in the auditorium: "To the men, you have to write your own poem." This was ladies' night.

— Darrell Hartman