While many women are complaining about gender inequality and clamoring for women emancipation, several others are blazing trails and breaking new grounds. Forbes recently released the 2013 edition of its well-known list, ‘The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women’. Many recent newcomers made the list, but a number of the old-timers still gained ground.
According to Forbes’ Caroline Howard, these women have crossed socio-economic frontiers and defied cultural boundaries in business, lifestyle, media, non-governmental/not-for-profit, politics, technology, and of course, the billionaire world. Meeting the Forbes’ criteria of money, media and impact, they bring a fresh perspective to our society’s concept of power, influence and strength. For monetary strength, they were graded on company revenue and market cap (business), budget (NGOs), income (celebrities), net worth (billionaires), and country’s GDP (politicians). While some people argue that the Power Women experienced success because the societies they live in created opportunities for such growth, I beg to disagree.
Liberian President, 2011 Nobel Laureate winner, and number 87 on the Forbes Power Women List, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf made her way through, in a continent perceived to be male-dominated. With formal employment rate of 15%, and 85% of its population still living below the international poverty threshold of $1.25 per day; Liberia, though one of the poorest countries in the world, grows slowly but steadily under a woman. Also from Africa is former UN Staff Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigerian Minister of Finance who stands at number 83, for the 6.5% increase experienced in Nigeria’s GDP. It is a similar story with the other female Heads of Government on the list. Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff, Number 2 on the Forbes’ List, governs the seventh-largest national economy in the world, and attempts to return the country to its former glory. It can be recalled that Brazil’s notable economic explosion of the 1990’s experienced a decline in the early 2000’s. Her tenure has encouraged entrepreneurship, which has the potential to boost the nation’s financial growth.
America’s Hillary Clinton is at number 5. If you think she made the list solely because she is married to the former United States President, think again. She is not just a brilliant senator; she is a record-breaker, a first in many grounds. Anyone who has read Bill Clinton’s biography, ‘My Life’, knows that she cleverly ensured her husband’s political success, especially during the (ahem,) Monica Lewinsky scandal. Mr. Clinton firmly believes that the difference between his success in politics and his wife’s is exposure. She proves that success does not necessarily come through the person you marry; who you are is most paramount.
The last sentence also alludes to world’s beloved Melinda Gates, who stands at number 3. I have taken part in projects funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; as a result, my respect for the Microsoft couple remains. Ask directors of health-focused non-profits in Africa, and they will tell you how the foundation has given enormous financial aid to improve healthcare in developing countries. If you, or a person you know, has received polio vaccinations or visited a nationally recognized family planning clinic in Africa, there is a high chance that you have benefited from their foundation.
Thirty-one years old celebrity, Beyoncé Knowles, stays on the list with high figures from her fashion business, House of Dereon. (One would think she made more money from music.) Fashion designers and business owners, Miuccia Prada and Diane von Furstenberg, of luxury brands Prada and Diane Von Furstenberg respectively, also made the list. In media are women like the President of Disney/ABC Television Group, Anne Sweeney; Executive Editor of New York Times Co., Jill Abramson, and the Senior Vice President of Google, Susan Wojcicki.
Although there are (possibly), a larger number of uncelebrated females wading through and winning in troubled waters, this Forbes list stands as an example of the winner that every woman can become. Surrounded by economic breakdown, and long-standing socio-cultural prejudices, women are finding the grits to push for change. What is your industry? What is your excuse?
