07:45 am
The World’s Most Powerful Women
Forbes Magazine has put out its list of the world’s most powerful women. As you would expect from Forbes, there’s a strong emphasis business leaders. Here’s the top ten:
- Angela Merkel, Prime Minister of Germany
- Sheila Blair, Chairman of the FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation)
- Indra Nooyi, Chairman and Chief Executive, PepsiCo
- Angela Braly, Chief Executive WellPoint U.S.
- Cynthia Carroll, Chief Executive, Anglo American U.K.
- Irene Rosenfeld, Chairman and Chief Executive, Kraft Foods
- Condoleezza Rice, U.S. Secretary of State
- Ho Ching, Chief Executive, Temasek Holdings, Singapore
- Anne Lauvergeon, Chief Executive, Areva France
- Anne Mulcahy, Chairman and Chief Executive, Xerox
At first I was surprised that I had only heard of three of those in the top ten: Merkel, Nooyi, and Rice. But then I saw how Forbes had determined its rankings:
We measure power as a composite of public profile — calculated using press mentions — and financial heft. . . . The economic component of the ranking considers job title and past
career accomplishments, as well as the amount of money a woman
controls. A chief executive gets the revenue of her business, for
example, while a Nobel winner receives her prize money and a U.N.
agency head receives her organization’s budget. We modify the raw
dollar figures to allow comparisons among the different financial
realms so that the corporate revenue that an executive controls, for
instance, is on the same footing as a country’s gross domestic product,
ascribed to prime ministers.
Well, no wonder it’s all business executives. But what isn’t clear is exactly how both Merkel and Rice, who have little “financial heft” made the top ten, while Hilary Clinton, who Forbes said was the woman with the highest public profile, is only #28, behind the Director of the Centers for Disease Control, for crying out loud.
Another interesting contrast is that of Shelia Blair (#2) and Nancy Pelosi (#35). Isn’t control over U.S. government’s purse strings greater financial clout than managing the U.S. banking insurance system? And what financial heft does Laura Bush (#44) have?
Their methodology doesn’t make much sense. But it does make interesting reading.
Other figures of note in the top 100:
- Cristina Fernandez, President of Argentina (13);
- Yulia Tymoshenko, Prime Minister of Ukraine (17)
- Sonia Gandhi, President of the Indian National Congress (21);
- Michelle Bachelet, President of Chile (25);
- Oprah Winfrey (36)
- Aung San Suu Kyi (37)
- Gloria Arroyo, President of the Philippines (41)
- Tzipi Livni, Israeli foreign minister (52)
- Helen Clark, Prime Minister of New Zealand (56)
- Queen Elizabeth II (58 — profession listed as “Queen.” Heh.)
- Meredith Vieira, co-host “The Today Show,” NBC (61 — higher than Katie. That’s gotta hurt.)
- Katie Couric (62)
- Barbara Walters (63)
- Diane Sawyer (65)
- Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, President of Liberia (66)
- Tarja Halonen, President of Finland (71)
- Ruth Bader Ginsberg (72)
- Mary McAleese, President of Ireland (74)
- Christiane Amanpour, CNN (91)
I’m sorry, but I have a hard time taking seriously any list that thinks that the foreign minister of Greece is more powerful than Angelina Jolie.
Loading ...