On this year’s Forbes list of the world’s 100 most powerful women, three of the top five most powerful are politicians. There are eight heads of state, several new faces and almost every political returnee from last year’s list moved up in the rankings. Why? “There cannot be true democracy unless women’s voices are heard,” Hillary Rodham Clinton once famously said. More than ever, women are leading or running for office in many of the world’s largest nations, demanding that representation inch closer to parity.
Women are taking up the highest offices around the globe. Ranked the No. 1 most powerful woman and female politician is German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who directly controls the $2.9 trillion GDP of Germany and influences the $14.8 trillion economy of the European Union. Germany is the world’s fifth biggest economy and the largest nation led by a woman. In office since 2005, Merkel is now leading the charge to stabilize E.U. debt and keep the 17-member euro zone unified.
Just behind her at No. 2 on the list is U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is fourth in line to succeed the president. As the world ambassador of the largest single economy on earth, Clinton has advanced U.S. interests and policies overseas while pushing women’s issues, development and education to the top of the foreign policy agenda. She is one of a handful of women to have run for U.S. president on a major ticket and undoubtedly paved the way for the women coming up in politics behind her.
On the global playing field, Clinton may have even more status than her title conveys. Political commentator and fellow power woman Greta Van Susteren told Forbes recently, “She’s different than most secretaries of state. When she lands in a country, [Clinton] might as well be the President of the United States… The whole world knows her.”
Ranked the third most powerful woman this year, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff directs the world’s eighth largest economy. Rousseff is the biggest mover on the list, climbing 92 spots to No. 3 in 2011 from No. 95 in 2010. When Forbes went to press last year, she was ramping up for a runoff election in October that went in her favor, making Rousseff the first female head of government in Brazil. The economist and former Marxist guerrilla served previously as the country’s Minister of Energy and Chief of Staff, during which a reported 24 million escaped absolute poverty. She’s also embraced social media: her 750,000-plus followers landed her on our top-10 list of female power tweeters. Soon all eyes will be on Brazil as the nation gears up to host the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics.
Other female world leaders like Sonia Gandhi, president of the Indian National Congress Party; Cristina Fernandez, president of Argentina; Julia Gillard, prime minister of Australia; Yingluck Shinawatra, prime minister of Thailand; Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, president of Liberia; and Laura Chinchilla, president of Costa Rica, all prove that women are competent and capable government leaders—and that constituencies are ready and able to elect them.
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