The 100 Most Powerful Women (www.forbes.com)

The 100 Most Powerful Women (www.forbes.com)

Elizabeth MacDonald and Chana R. Schoenberger

The up-and-comers, the ones to watch, the returnees. Here are the women who make things happen.
Our second ranking of the world's most powerful women illustrates how fleeting power is. Megawati Sukarnoputri, the former president of Indonesia who lost her reelection bid, dropped off the rankings. Gone, too, is Carleton (Carly) Fiorina, booted from Hewlett-Packard. The scandal-plagued president of the Philippines, Gloria Arroyo (#4), could soon be off as well. Among the newcomers: Yulia Tymoshenko (#3), prime minister of Ukraine.

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 economic yardsticks comparable. For example, a politician is assigned a GDP number but gets a low multiplier, while a foundation executive is assigned the foundation's assets but gets a high multiplier.

Assistance: Catalyst, a research nonprofit; Laura Liswood, secretary general of the Council of Women World Leaders; and Elizabeth Ryan of Worldwit, a women's business group.

Reported by Suzanne Hoppough, Luisa Kroll, Anne Mintz, Victoria Murphy and Tatiana Serafin. Additional reporting by Stephane Fitch, Alina Hartounian, Leah Hoffmann, Kiyoe Minami, Lacey Rose, Matthew Swibel, Wendy Widman and Cristina von Zeppelin.

The Top Ten

1. Condoleezza Rice
2. Wu Yi
3. Yulia Tymoshenko
4. Gloria Arroyo
5. Margaret Whitman
6. Anne Mulcahy
7. Sallie Krawcheck
8. Brenda Barnes
9. Oprah Winfrey
10. Melinda Gates


Source: http://www.forbes.com/free_forbes/2005/0815/046.html