The Best of the Best
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is the world’s most powerful woman, according to media giant Forbes. Merkel, who is also ranked 6th on Forbes' Most Powerful People list, heads Europe’s only true global economy. In a time when the U.S. is still fighting the grips of a recession and Europe is in a debt crisis, Merkel oversees a thriving economy and falling unemployment rates. A big supporter of education and tax reforms, she wants to stabilize EU debt and has called for greater political and economic euro-integration.
Number two on the list is U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Though she doesn’t plan on seeking a second term, Clinton has made a lot of progress backing women’s issues, education and development overseas.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff is number 3 on Forbes’ list. The first female Chief of Staff under President Lula da Silva, she took over his position as president of Latin America’s largest economy just five years later.
Some of the list’s already-famous faces include Lady Gaga (11th), Beyonce (18th), Oprah (14th) Angelina Jolie (29th), Diane Sawyer (47th) Ellen DeGeneres (55th) and J.K. Rowling (61st).
A few less well-known, but still worth knowing, women to make the list are Judith Rodin, president of Rockefeller Foundation (71st), Zhang Xin, cofounder of real-estate empire SOHO China (48th), Denise Morrison, CEO for Campbell Soup (80th), Yingluck Sinawatra, prime minister of Thailand (58th) and Josette Sheeran, World Food Programme (30th).
Who’s New to the List?
Some of the women appearing for the first time are Republican Michele Bachmann (22nd), Twitter's vice president for international strategy, Katie Jacobs Stanton (56th), Google's senior vice president for advertising, Susan Wojcicki (16th), chairwoman of China's Fu Wah International Group, Chan Laiwa (33rd), the new executive editor for the New York Times, Jill Abramson (12th), World Bank managing director Sri Mulyani Indrawati (65th) and Margaret Hamburg, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (21st).
Notable Absences
Some of 2010’s most powerful women are notably absent from the 2011 list.
Former news hosts Katie Couric and Meredith Vieira, who last year ranked 22nd and 40th respectively, are absent this year. All three of the Supreme Court’s female judges are also missing entirely.
Singer Madonna (29th last year), talk show host Chelsea Handler (33rd last year) French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy (35th last year), the United Arab Emirates' minister of economics, Sheikha-Lubna-al-Qasimi (70th last year), Qatari First Lady Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al Missned (72nd last year) and Food Network host Rachael Ray (78th last year) are a few of the others who are absent.
How Were the World’s 100 Most Powerful Women Chosen?
According to Forbes Staffer Caroline Howard, the pool began with 200 preliminary candidates. The top 100 were selected from the categories of business, media, politics, nonprofits, billionaires and entertainment/fashion.
To determine the women’s rank within the top 100, each woman was evaluated within her own category.
“For money, we looked at the past year in company revenue for women in business and media, salary using the ranking on the May 2011 FORBES Celebrity 100 for lifestyle, GDP for politics and net worth from the March 2011 FORBES World’s Billionaires list for those with 10 figure bank accounts. Women from nonprofits and NGOs were rated on dollars spent fulfilling the organization’s mission statement,” Howard said.
The women’s media exposure was also taken into consideration. Did each woman have TV and radio appearances? How many Facebook fans, YouTube views and Twitter followers does each have? All of this was calculated from the past 12 months, up until August 2011.
Lastly, Forbes scored each candidate’s impact. The staff looked at whether each woman reaches just a single group or if she has a whole sphere of influence.
Quick Facts
- Seventy-four are list returnees
- Ten percent of the list has bank accounts in the 10 figures
- Together, the women control about $30 trillion
- The average age is 54
- Twenty-nine are CEOs
- Eight are heads of state
- 22 are single
- 88% are mothers
- First lady Michelle Obama fell from 1st to 8th
- Oprah Winfrey fell from 3rd to 14th
- Sarah Palin fell from 16th to 34th
The list is diverse and impressive. Howard says, “There’s nothing static about the list. Nearly half the women are first-timers or are back after dropping off. Some changed jobs since last year. Most were promoted but some changed tracks altogether or are newly elected to office --all evidence that women are moving up the pipeline.”
View the complete list at Forbes’ website.
Additional Sources:
Howard, Caroline. (2011). Forbes Announces World's 100 Most Powerful Women 2011. Huffington Post. Retrieved August 25,2011
Most of Forbes' most powerful women are moms. (2011) CBS News. Retrieved August 25, 2011
Rozen, Laura. (2011) Who arrived–and who fell off–Forbes’ list of the world’s powerful women? The Envoy. Retrieved August 25, 2011
Kristen Sikora - Kristen is a freelance writer. She received her bachelor's degree in journalism and religion from Ashland University in 2008.
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