Forbes has come up with its 2010 list the world's most powerful women and they include heads of state and first ladies, bankers and cultural icons, CEOs and entrepreneurial athletes.
Forbes has come up with its 2010 list the world's most powerful women and they include heads of state and first ladies, bankers and cultural icons, CEOs and entrepreneurial athletes. Forbes divided the power women candidates into four groups: politics, business, media and lifestyle. It ranked the women in each group, and then group against group. Two Indian women, Axis bank Chief Executive Shikha Sharma and ICICI bank head Chanda Kocchar also made it to the list.
Michelle Obama, the First Lady of the United States.
"She has made the office of First Lady her own. A forceful advocate of school nutrition standards and military families' affairs, she's more involved in policy than Laura Bush was," says Forbes.
Irene Rosenfeld, the chief executive of Kraft Foods
Her $26.3 million compensation package in 2009 made Rosenfeld the nation's second-highest-paid female, after Yahoo!'s Carol Bartz, according to Forbes.
Oprah Winfrey, the talk show host and media mogul.
Power Women #3
Age: 56
Education: BA/BS , Tennessee State University
"Her 25th season of Oprah, the program that has launched multiple careers, spawned countless bestsellers and helped millions of women feel that someone, at last, understands them, will air its final show on Sept. 9, 2011,” according to Forbes.
Angela Merkel, the chancellor of Germany
Power Women#4
Age: 56
Merkel is trying to push through tax and education reforms before next spring's regional elections.
Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State
Power Women#5
Age: 62
Education: BA/BS , Wellesley College; LLM, Yale University
As a former first lady and US senator, Clinton brings star power to the State Department, says Forbes.
Indra Nooyi, the chief executive of PepsiCo
Power Women#6
Age: 54
Education: MBA , Yale University , IIM Calcutta
Nooyi is the chief architect of PepsiCo's multi-year growth strategy, Performance with Purpose, which is focused on delivering sustainable growth by investing in a healthier future for people and our planet.
Lady Gaga, a singer and performance artist
Power Women#7
Education: Dropout , New York University
Part singer and part performance artist, Lady Gaga (née Stefanie Germanotta) has single-handedly reinvigorated pop music and pop culture, says Forbes.
Gail Kelly, the chief executive of Westpac
Power Women#8
Age: 54
Education: BA/BS , University of Cape Town
As head of Australia's second-largest bank, Westpac, with $551 billion in assets and $15.9 billion in revenue, and the country's most influential businesswoman, the native South African has an outsized public profile, says Forbes.
Beyonce Knowles, a singer and fashion designer
Power Women #9
Age: 29
Beyoncé had an income of $80 million last year, thanks to an ever-expanding artistic and business empire that includes 118 million records, seven films, 16 Grammy awards (she was the first woman to win six in one night) and numerous MTV Video Music Awards, says Forbes.
Ellen DeGeneres, a talk show host
Power Women#10
Age: 52
Her eponymous chat show, a five-time Emmy winner, is now in its eighth season, according to Forbes.
Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House of Representatives
Power Women#11
Education: BA/BS , Trinity Washington University
The first female speaker of the US House of Representatives, Pelosi is the highest-ranking female politician in US history, second in line to the presidency, says Forbes.
Angela Braly, the chief executive of Wellpoint
Power Women#12
Age: 49
Education: JD , Southern Methodist University; BA/BS, Texas Tech University
Janet Napolitano, the secretary for US Homeland Security
Power Women#13
Age: 52
Education: BA/BS , Santa Clara University; JD, University of Virginia
It's been a tough ride for the national security tsar in a year of high-profile cases, among them the near-miss bombing on Times Square and a Nigerian national's Christmas Day effort to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner, says Forbes.
Cynthia Carroll, the chief executive of Anglo American
Power Women #14
Age: 53
Education: MBA , Harvard University; BA/BS, Skidmore College; MS, University of Kansas
Under the guidance of Carroll, an American metals executive who has remade herself into a global leader, the company has extensively restructured, says Forbes.
Sheila Bair, chairperson of US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
Power Women #15
Age: 56
Education: BA/BS , University of Kansas; LLM, University of Kansas
Bair, who has written books for children on money, opposed a provision that mandated banks spin off their derivatives-trading businesses, arguing that it would make these complex instruments, which were partially responsible for the market crash of 2008, even harder for regulators to keep track of, says Forbes.
Sarah Palin, an American politician and commentator
Power Women#16
Age: 46
Education: BA/BS , University of Idaho
Mary Schapiro, chairperson, Securities and Exchange Commission
Power Women #17
Age: 55
Education: BA/BS , Franklin & Marshall College; JD, George Washington University
"From excavating the Bernie Madoff fraud to investigating the ratings agencies' possible role in the financial crisis, Schapiro is striving to bring order to the most important financial-regulatory house in the world," says Forbes.
Ellen Kullman, chief executive, DuPont
Power Women #18
Age: 54
Education: MBA , Northwestern University; Tufts University
She came to the chief executive post at the height of the recession and had to cut 4,500 jobs in her first year, but last year promised to increase per-share earnings 20% by 2012 and a doubling of the company's efforts in the renewable energy market, according to Forbes.
Sonia Sotomayor, Supreme Court Justice, United States
Power Women #19
Age: 56
Education: BA/BS , Princeton University; JD, Yale University
Her first major opinion was to dissent in the court's ruling on a Miranda rights case; the majority determined a man who remained silent for two hours of questioning waived his right to remain silent when he answered "yes" to a detective asking if he had prayed to God for forgiveness for a murder, says Forbes.
Ursula Burns, chief executive, Xerox
Power Women #20
Age: 51
Education: MS , Columbia University; BA/BS, Polytechnic Institute
Burns is recasting 104-year-old copier and printer giant Xerox into a data service company, helped by last year's acquisition of Affiliated Computer Services for $6.4 billion.
Angelina Jolie, actor and UN Goodwill Ambassador
Power Women #21
Age:35
A UN Goodwill Ambassador and two-time Davos speaker, she's also opened her wallet. Jolie's all-girls school in Afghanistan opened its doors to 800 students this year, and she donated $1 million to help Haiti rebuild and another $100,000 for the flood relief efforts in Pakistan.
Katie Couric, News anchor
Power Women #22
Age: 53
Education: BA/BS , University of Virginia
What was a major symbolic victory for women in journalism and for Couric personally in 2006--she was the first female anchor of a network nightly news program, with a reported $15 million annual paycheck--has been beset with falling ratings according to Forbes.
Kathleen Sebelius, US Secretary, Health & Human Services
Power Women #23
Age: 62
Education: BA/BS , Trinity College Connecticut; MBA, University of Kansas; BA/BS, Trinity Washington University
Sebelius's top priority is the implementation of the sweeping health care reform law passed in March. Responsible for roughly 1,300 provisions in the law, she will decide the smallest details, such as distributing wellness grants to small businesses, to the largest, like defining what constitutes "essential" health care.
Anne Lauvergeon, Chief Executive, Areva
Power Women #24
Age: 51
Education: PHD , Ecole Normale Superieure
The only woman to run a nuclear energy company, Lauvergeon unloaded Areva's transmission and distribution business this summer, and is now focused on reducing the company's $40 billion debt and diversifying further into renewable energy, such as wind and solar power.
The first female dean of her alma mater, Harvard Law School, and former solicitor general in the Obama administration, joined the high court in August as the nation's fourth female justice.
Shikha Sharma, the chief executive of Axis Bank
Power Women #89
Age: 49
“With the first year of her three-year term as CEO of India's third-largest private bank behind her, Shikha Sharma says it's time look forward. Next up? Introducing a retail broking platform and the possibility of expanding internationally,” says Forbes.
Chanda Kocchar, the chief executive of ICICI Bank
Power Women#92
Age: 48
ICICI is India's largest private bank and it recently acquired of Bank of Rajasthan. ICICI has also launched its first retail branch in Singapore.
