The World's 100 Most Powerful Women

From Forbes
By Elizabeth MacDonald and Chana R. Schoenberger 08.30.07, 6:00 PM ET

For the second year in a row Angela Merkel (in photo),
the first woman to become chancellor of Germany, ranks No. 1 on our list of the World's 100 Most Powerful Women. She continued to impress the world with her cool leadership at two back-to-back summits, and stuck to her principles, getting G-8 leaders to agree to significant cuts in carbon emissions, among other things. She later corralled European Union countries into an agreement on a treaty to replace the E.U. constitution. More...


In second place is China's vice premier, Wu Yi.

Ho Ching,Chief executive, Temasek Holdings of Singapore is third.

Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State of U.S., is ranked fourth.

Indra K. Nooyi Chairman, chief executive, Pepsi in the U.S. is ranked fifth.

Many of the women listed are political leaders, but even more are business leaders and approximately half are from the U.S.A.

According to the Forbes article it may be easier for a women in the US to rise in the business ranks than in politics.

However statistics indicate that women in the USA still earn 25% less than men. MS Magazine points out that “Despite comprising about 50 percent of students at law schools, women make up only 16 percent of top-level law partners today. Corporate America is similar, with women holding just 16 percent of top-officer slots, and it's even worse at the very top, where women hold a paltry 2 percent of CEO positions in the Fortune 500.”

The Forbes article continues to state “U.S. Sen. and former first lady Hillary Clinton (No. 25) may make history by winning the Democratic presidential nomination. But will she make history again by winning the presidency? Clinton might have had a better shot at it if she were born in England, Germany, India, Pakistan or Israel. Women who operate in these parliamentary systems of government have had an easier time getting to the top because they are handpicked by their colleagues in their countries' ruling party, not by an entire country of voters in national elections.”

Albeit, there are several countries with female heads of state that have come to power by democratic elections. For example Cristina Fernández de Kirchner the president of Argentina; Michelle Bachelet (No. 27) president of Chile; Tarja Halonen (No. 50) president of Finland; Mary McAleese (No. 58) president of Ireland; Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf (No. 100) president of Liberia; and Micheline Calmy-Rey president of the Swiss Confederation just to name those currently in office. This list does not include prime ministers.

For full list of 100 most powerful women and their profiles visit: http://www.forbes.com/lists/2007/11/biz-07women_The-100-Most-Powerful-Women_Rank.html