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Well, Forbes magazine reveals the 100 most powerful women in the world and some of the names might surprise you. Elizabeth McDonald is the senior editor of Forbes. Elizabeth, good morning.
Good morning.
This is so much fun. I can't (And it is fun,)wait to see people like Martha Stewart. (all right) Before we get to the list, however, how did you choose? You picked by the basis of the top 100?
Right. We looked at a candidate list of about 300 women and we cut it back to 100. We had a team of about 15 staffers, drilling into these women's resumes, drilling into their files. We wanted to see two things, their economic clout and their cultural clout. You know, we just really wanted to drill (in) deep into their files to see what these women's accomplishments have been.
First take a look at the top ten. (Sure)No.1, on the Forbes list of the most powerful women, is Condoleezza Rice. (That's right.) Is there any debate within your magazine about that?
No. Because, you know, she has not, she is not only the first African- American woman to be Secretary of State. She's also served two other presidents. She is reinvigorating the role of Secretary of State with the kind of diplomatic activism. You know, she's taking on Genocide in Sudan. You know, she is dealing with Israeli-Palestinian conflicts. So it was clear to us that she was No.1.
And Secretary of State of the most powerful nation in the world. (That's right.) Something that's also instructive. Also, the next three, 2, 3 and 4 are women, most people may not, Americans, anyway, may not have heard of: Wu Yi, the vice premier of China(Right.), also, Yulia Tymoshenko, who is the prime minister of Ukraine, and also Gloria Arroyo, the president of the Philippines. What makes them so powerful, 2, 3, and 4?
What was interesting in particular about Yulia Tymoshenko is she is the woman who led the Orange Revolution to oust this former corrupt regime. She's also taking on the oligarchs. You know when we were doing this list, we were always mindful about Margret Thatcher's one sentence and she said," You know, I don't mind how long my ministers talk, so long as they do what I said." We are looking for women who have courage, who have conviction, who have a vision and who take charge.
Ok, now, next on the list, now 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 are all American women who're head of large corporations. As we look at their faces, it's interesting to know, that all the way down to the bottom of 9, you have actually after Sallie, and also Brenda coming up next, you have Oprah Winfrey. (That's right.) Now why is she sunk down so low when so many people on the street thought that she should be higher?
We are elder than that we have set up; takes a look at various economic measures. We're trying to find the economic matrix that show (the) how('s) large / economic sphere that these women hold sway over. So these women who are the business women. They run multi-billion dollar corporations and they have tremendous economic impact down on Wallstreet, or in the corporate America.
So we may not know specifically how much impact. We don't even have to know their names, but they have (tremen) much more impact than we realized.
Right. That's not to say Oprah doesn't have economic impact. (She has a huge cultural impact, one of the criteria) Right. She has a huge cultural impact. Her show is aired in 112 countries, including the U.S.
Ok. Also, No.10 is Mellinda Gates, co-founder of the Bill and Mellinda Gates Foundation. I think it's Mellinda and Bill Gates Foundation. (That's right.) The bottom line on that one is that because of her charity work, because of so much money they give.
Right. That you know the endowment that they run Bill and Mellinda Gates Foundation is about 28.8 billion dollar foundation. It is huge in humanitarian world.
Ok. Also, let's go down the list further. You've got No.12, other notable woman, Julie Gerberding, who is the director of Centers for Disease control in U.S, That's a very important job. Also Hillary Clinton, No. 26, You put her ahead away down the list, No. 46, Laura Bush, the first lady of the United States. I'm surprised that she is down so low. Is it possible that she has much more influence than we realize.
Who? I beg your pardon. Laura Bush? (Laura.) Laura Bush does has tremendous influence in the U.S, but you know, Hillary Clinton is an elected official and you know, she's aspiring to be the (present) next Democratic nominee for the president. But that, but really it was her influence in New York State and the country as a whole as a member of the Senate body.
All right. Ok, now further down the list. 63 is Rose Marie Bravo, the chief Executive of Burberry, U.K. Now she is a fashion powerhouse.
That's right. You know, it's hard to… you know the Burberry brand is so ubiquitous. Some want to see that her famous plat put on an automobile or plane right now. But Rose Marie reinvigorated the Burberry brand. She's doubled the sales here. She came over from sacks and Burberry was really a struggling brand in the late 90s.
75, Queen Elizabeth II. (Right.) 90, Christie Hefner, the daughter of Heugh. And No.97, Lubna Olayan.(Right.) She is who? (She once...) The chief executive of Olayan..
Olayan Financing Company(Saudi Arabia.) and that's in Saudi Arabia. And basically she's helping to run a conglomerate of about 50 different entities. And that's a huge huge company in the Middle East.
And No.47 Catie Couric.(That's right. Catie Couric) In part because of her charity work for colon cancer and in addition..
We were very impressed for her charity work and it's also because, you know, the Today's Show is top of the morning's show ratings, so that's why Catie Couric is on the list.
You know, when we did the list, we basically read through the surveys of the women who said,"why is it so? Why is it that women have struggled breaking through the glass ceiling." That's a phrase of Wallstreet journal calling it in 1985, and uniformly women executives said, "Well, because there aren't any role models to show us how they got there." Well, here they are on the Forbes list.
All right. Is there a sign that we are doing it better than we have been?
I think it's improving. Still, the salary is a problem, but it is improving.
Elizabeth McDonald. Pleasure. (Sure, thank you.)Thank you so much for talking about this. And again you can find the list in the current issue of Forbes magazine.
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