Forbes: 100 Most Powerful Women

Forbes is famous for publishing their 100 Most ___ lists. My favorite of such lists is the 100 Most Powerful Women list. So how does Forbes find the worlds most powerful women and what system do they use to rank them? Well, they begin by dividing up certain women in high ranking positions into seven categories; billionaires, celebrities, business, media, philanthropists, politicians and technology. The women are then assessed on a money metric (such as GDP), a media metric (both traditional and social media) and an impact metric (such as their influence across industries, cultures, countries, how many people they influence and how actively they use that influence).

The top ten most powerful women of the 2013 list: 

1. Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany

2. Dilma Rousseff, President of Brasil

3. Melinda Gates, Co-Chair of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

4. Michelle Obama, First Lady of United States

5. Hillary Clinton, Personality/Philanthropist

6. Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook

7. Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of International Money Fund

8. Janet Napolitano, Secretary-United States Department of Homeland Security

9. Sonia Gandhi, President of India's National Congress (political party)

10. Indra Nooyi, CEO of PepsiCo

Secrets of the Worlds Most Powerful Women