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From prime ministers to presidents of Fortune 500 companies, women across the globe are making great strides when it comes to changing the perception of the power elite. For the 3rd consecutive year, Forbes Magazine has selected the 100 most powerful women in the world. Chana Schoenberger is the, an associate editor at Forbes Magazine. Chana, good morning.
Good morning. I'm so glad to be here.
First of all, great to see you as well. Thank you for joining us. Let's talk about your criteria, first of all, because (Yes) you're talking about the most powerful women in the world.
Right. Well, we're looking at three things. We're looking at the amount of money that they control, we're looking at their resume, their job, their previous jobs, and we're also looking at, un, eh (Their influence?) money, resume, and, and public profile, (Ok), their press entrance.
Ok, because there's a lot of influence that this list has...(Yes), and you're, you know, I'm noticing, ah, some of them might be predictable, the top, the No.1 is chancellor, German chancellor Ange, Angela Merkel (That's right), and No.2 is Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, but some of these people on the list, maybe most of us have not heard of. For example, at No.76, you have Angela Ahrendts, she's the chief executive of Burberry. Why did you put her on the list?
She's brand new to the job and her predecessor Rose Marie Bravo was also on our list last year when she had this job. Burberry is a very important fashion company and of course as, as women, we love the brand, we love "the check "(The trademark of Burberry, the check, has been worked in laminated cotton for the classic trench coat or appears as a cape on the catwalk.). Uh, she's had some challenges. She's trying to move beyond the plaid that everybody knows. She's been putting that founder's signature as an icon. She's doing a new course and everybody loves it. It's so exciting to have her on the list.
What is predictable is that Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Senator is on the list at No.18, but what may be someone surprising is that you have Nancy Pelosi, who's minority leader, at 48 and then Laura Bush at 43. Now why is Hillary Rodham Clinton way up on the list and someone like Laura Bush at 43?
Well, it's interesting, because if you, ur, a question I get asked all the time is ah, you know, if there were a woman president of the US, would she be No.1? And the answer is if there were a woman President, she'd probably be No.1. And right now Hillary is the woman who is poised to possibly be the Democratic nominee and maybe even to be the president, so that makes her extremely powerful, much more powerful than an ordinary senator would be.
Speaking of women presidents, Michelle Bachelet, she's the, ah, President of Chile, she's a first woman ever elected president of a South American nation. And, and you have her at No.17
She's a really big deal, and ah, she's only the second female president in all of Latin America. She was a political dissident. She was jailed. She was exiled, you know, her family was jailed. She's a doctor and so for her to become President of Chile, it's a huge cheer. The Chileans were so excited about seeing her on this list. Apparently, there's dancing on the streets?
Emm. Good to see. It's been a pretty amazing year because we also saw there, a woman, the first woman, ah, a president of Africa is also this year (oh, yeah), but also, I mean, Andrea Jung is the chairman and CEO of Avon Products, so she's had some financial sales issues in, in Latin America and in China, but you still have her at No.37.
It's true. She is actually very inspiring. Avon has been such a force for women, driving them to entrepreneurship, these are, these, these Avon calling Avon ladies have been out there, basically running their own businesses for Avon and it's such an, an important force, so we, we thought that she was great.
You also have at No. 22, the Chief Executive and President of eBay, Margaret Whitman, and this, she's gotta be pretty influential.
Well, she's also, Madam Whitman is ah, she's also one of the richest women in the world. (Hmm), one of the richest people in the world and she's built this company. She's not the founder, but she came in and built this company into a powerhouse for, for the online world, one of the most successful companies on the Internet.
Um hum, you also have the second largest United States firm to be led by ah, a woman ah, is, is PepsiCo, and Indra Nooyi is a chief executive designate, she's had PepsiCo. And also I should probably mention, ah, that, you know, there are a lot of newswomen on this list (Yeah), including ah, Katie Couric and Diane Sawyer, and our very own Meredith Vieira, who's gonna be coming in a week from Wednesday. Now why did you put Meredith Vieira on the list when she's sort of in between? Is it because she's gonna be taking the role of Today Show, or is it because (Yeah) of what she's already done over the course of her many years in this profession?
Well, it's a recognition of her accomplishments, but it's also because she's taking over this, this great show. And so many people will be watching her. She's gonna be so influential in, in what she says, and she's had, you know, she is an award-winning, winning newswoman, but she's also, you know, she spent nine years on the View. I don't have to tell you all this, but un, she's really connected with viewers, she's told her personal story, her own struggles, and eh, the, the audience really connects with her, so she's gonna have a lot of power.
And she's at 69 now. I'm getting, I'm guessing that her number's gonna rise as time goes on. (Yeah, we'll see) Thank you so much Chana Schoenberger. (Thank you) I really appreciate your list and your coming down to hang out with us and tell us all about it this morning.
1.make great strides:make great advances, progress a lot
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