World’s 100 Most Powerful Women
If you think about “power” purely in terms of physics, its dimensions are energy divided by time. The more energy and the less time, the greater the power. You’ll certainly find a lot of energy among Forbes magazine’s list of this year’s 100 most powerful women. And many of them have risen to power in a very short time. They cover the fields of business, politics, media, lifestyles, and many others, and the women on the list range in age from 24 (Lady Gaga) to 84 (Queen Elizabeth II).
What do they all have in common? They all have influence of large numbers of people. At the top of the list is US First Lady Michelle Obama. While any First Lady is widely influential, Obama has used her position to draw attention to issues that affect millions, particularly school nutrition standards and the needs of military families.
Forbes’ list includes 10 heads of state (an eleventh, Dilma Rousseff, may be added as soon as Brazil’s elections are concluded) and two monarchs (Queen Elizabeth II and Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan). It also includes one race car driver, 28-year-old Danica Patrick.
While the list does include a few “firsts,” such as Julia Gillard (first Australian female prime minister) and Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf (first female president of Liberia, first female president in Africa), the real “message” of the list is that women are found in every field and discipline, in larger numbers than ever. Two American broadcast nightly news anchors are women, as are numerous cable anchors. Female CEOs, while still in the minority, are not considered unusual, and women in charge of handling billions of dollars are hardly rare these days.
Women are achieving positions of immense influence in greater numbers than ever, even in parts of the world where gender roles are more traditional. It is well worthwhile to share this inspiring list of powerful women with any young female you care about. After all, they are the chief executives, presidents, fighter pilots, media moguls, first ladies, and Supreme Court justices of tomorrow.
