Posted on 09/01/2007 1:06:30 AM PDT by Michael81Dus
For the second year in a row, Angela Merkel, 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. First, she stuck to her principles, getting G-8 leaders to agree to significant cuts in carbon emissions, among other things. Merkel later corralled European Union countries into an agreement on a treaty to replace the E.U. constitution.
Meanwhile, China's vice premier, Wu Yi (No. 2), continues to help lead a government that oversees an economy whose gross domestic product may soon eclipse Germany's, making it the third-biggest economy in the world. Wu recently stared down U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson when he made myriad demands, including a revaluation of the yuan, in recent strategic economic talks with the U.S.
But China faces enormous challenges in improving its rickety social, legal and economic infrastructure, which now has to contend with an overheated stock market, unsafe and shoddy products and severe pollution.
Women are also making very visible advances in business. In the year since we last ran our ranking, Angela Braly (No. 16) took the helm of insurer WellPoint, providing health care coverage to one in 10 Americans; the world's largest money-transfer company, Western Union, was spun off from First Data under the leadership of Christina Gold (No. 56); and PepsiCo Chief Executive Indra Nooyi (No. 5) added another title, that of chairman.
While there have been plenty of hand-wringing studies arguing that the corporate glass ceiling for women has turned into concrete, we had no difficulty turning up 66 business executives worthy of inclusion on the list. The remaining 34 are mostly in government.
If women aren't being stopped by any ceiling, it still can be argued that they have a tough go on the way to the top. Catalyst, a New York City firm that tracks the progress of women in corporate management positions, reports that women's hold on senior management jobs in the U.S. has stayed essentially flat over the past four years. They account for 15.6% of 10,145 corporate officer positions (chief financial officer, chief information officer or higher) in the 500 largest U.S. corporations.
Our ranking system starts with a list of women who have crossed certain thresholds. Most of them run companies, governments or nonprofits, or are very close to the top. A handful have established power bases in other ways (an entertainment entrepreneur, a judge and an author have been on the list). The power ranking score is based on a composite of visibility (measured by press citations) and economic impact.
The latter, in turn, reflects three things: résumé (career achievements and titles, so a prime minister counts as more powerful than a senator); the size of the economic sphere over which a leader holds sway; and a multiplier that aims to make different financial yardsticks comparable. For example, a chief executive is assigned the company's sales in the economic impact calculation, while a foundation executive is assigned the foundation's assets. The assets get a higher multiplier than sales.
Rank Name Occupation Country
1 Angela Merkel Chancellor Germany
2 Wu Yi Vice premier China
3 Ho Ching Chief executive, Temasek Holdings Singapore
4 Condoleezza Rice Secretary of State U.S.
5 Indra K. Nooyi Chairman, chief executive, PepsiCo U.S.
6 Sonia Gandhi President, Congress Party India
7 Cynthia Carroll Chief executive, Anglo American U.K.
8 Patricia A. Woertz Chairman, Archer Daniels Midland U.S.
9 Irene Rosenfeld Chairman, chief executive, Kraft Foods U.S.
10 Patricia Russo Chief executive, Alcatel-Lucent U.S.
11 Michèle Alliot-Marie Minister for the Interior and overseas territories France
12 Christine Lagarde Minister of economy, finance and employment France
13 Anne M. Mulcahy Chairman, chief executive, Xerox U.S.
14 Anne Lauvergeon Chief executive, Areva France
15 Mary Sammons Chairman, chief executive, president, Rite Aid Corp. U.S.
16 Angela Braly Chief executive, president, WellPoint U.S.
17 Marjorie Scardino Chief executive, Pearson PLC U.K.
18 Wu Xiaoling Deputy governor, People’s Bank of China China
19 Brenda Barnes Chairman, chief executive, Sara Lee Corp. U.S.
20 Ruth Bader Ginsburg Supreme court justice U.S.
21 Oprah Winfrey Chairman, Harpo U.S.
22 Margaret Whitman Chief executive, president, Ebay U.S.
23 Queen Elizabeth II Queen U.K.
24 Melinda Gates Cofounder, cochairman, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation U.S.
25 Hillary Rodham Clinton U.S. senator, New York U.S.
Where’s Whoopi? Rosie?
I think Angela is GREAT.
I wish she had more power. Friggin Socialist/Communists in this country don’t have a clue - although that is clearly redundant.
"You're in my seat!"
LOL! ; )
How does Condi have any power?
liberal dipwad report..
Rosie gives shit a bad name, let alone stench!!! :)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.