On-screen, the Oscar winner has confronted outdated gender and racial stereotypes. Off-screen, she’s honoring the resilience and ingenuity that women show in the face of disaster.

This story appears in the June 2015 issue of National Geographic magazine. EDITOR’S NOTE This story went to press before the earthquake struck Nepal on April 25. The kumaris in the Kathmandu ...

This story appears in the July 2017 issue of National Geographic ... one else will do it.” Women carry wheat harvested from the fields above the village of Saddi, in Nepal’s Hongu River ...