By
Elizabeth MacDonald and Chana R. Schoenberger
Forbes.com
Angela Merkel, the first woman to become chancellor of
Merkel won a tight election last year to unseat Gerhard Schröder as chancellor.
She's a former physicist from
Despite her short time in office, Merkel has been dazzling world leaders,
including Tony Blair and George W. Bush. But Merkel has a tough fight ahead of
her. Her approval ratings have declined to 56% from 80% earlier this year,
making it more difficult for Merkel to win big with key legislative
initiatives, including health care reform and corporate tax restructuring. She
inherited a stagnant economy that has only lately shown signs of revival. At
the same time, Merkel also has allied
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Behind the scenes, Merkel has
been making a big push to ramp up
And Merkel is hardly the only woman making waves on the international stage.
There are just 53 Americans on our list of the World’s 100 Most Powerful Women,
attesting to the growing power of women worldwide. More women than ever before
are running entire countries, not just companies and foundations.
This year's list includes 30 women in the top echelons of government, up from
24 in last year's ranking. In the past 12 months Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf became
president of
Women are also flexing their muscle in other ways. Neelie Kroes, the European
commissioner for competition, recently made headlines for slapping around
software giant Microsoft (fine: $358 million). Meanwhile, Melinda Gates is
overseeing a $30 billion donation from Warren Buffett to the Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation.
The
Our power rankings are based on a composite of visibility (measured by press
citations) and economic impact. The latter, in turn, reflects three things:
résumé (a prime minister is 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 politician is
assigned a gross domestic product number but gets a low multiplier, while a
foundation executive is assigned the foundation's assets but gets a high
multiplier.
The World’s Most Powerful Women was edited by Elizabeth MacDonald and Chana
R. Schoenberger.
The package was reported by Megha Bahree, Erika Brown, Helen Coster, Suzanne
Hoppough and Tatiana Serafin. Additional reporting by Victoria Murphy Barret,
Heidi Brown, Stephane Fitch, Jack Gage, Susan Kitchens, Luisa Kroll, Claire
Miller, Anne P. Mintz, Zina Moukheiber and Cristina von Zeppelin.
With assistance from Catalyst, a research group; Laura Liswood, secretary
general of the Council of Women World Leaders; and Marie Wilson, head of the
White House Project.