In a local news report Irene Rosenfeld, CEO of Kraft Foods was called ‘the second most powerful woman in the world’.
Who is the most powerful?
The Queen of England? Oprah? Probably Oprah.
They may be referring to this list- it’s Pepsi’s CEO…
I can think of a few candidates:
Oprah
Madonna
Sonia Sotomayor
Nancy Pelosi
Michelle Obama
Hillary Clinton
Angela Merkel
Nancy Grace
I forgot to add: if you click on this link and the next ranking, Irene Rosenfeld is listed as #2. QED.
My lovely bride is not on that list.
It is obviously flawed.
I am posting this of my own free will.
Really.
True. But what is your opinion? That’s why I put this in IMHO, not GQ.
From a ranking of business leadership it is a reasonable choice. But that list is only about business leadership not folks like Madonna or the Queen…
That’s what made me think about this. Is Madonna powerful? She sells - or used to - a lot of records, but she certainly hasn’t influenced my life. The Queen? Nominally, she is powerful; but actually? I’m not sure she actually has much influence.
Oprah
Why? Maybe in the States, but here in the UK, and, I suspect the rest of the world, it’s a name I know, as a TV interviewer, but how has she influenced the world?
(I’m not being snarky. I really don’t know.)
Well, the US is a big part of the world and our media influences a lot of other countries. Oprah has a big impact on what American women buy, for one thing. She’s also been very influential in book sales and, god help us, ideas good and bad (The Secret, Jenny McCarthy’s anti vaccination campaign.)
I think Oprah telling her viewers not to buy Pepsi for xyz reason would have a much greater impact than Pepsi’s CEO telling her employees not to watch, read, surf, etc. Oprah. Just sayin.
leiu: Surely Ruth Bader Ginsburg is as powerful or more so than Sonia Sotomayor?
That’s who I started to put at first, she’s certainly more tenured, but I thought with the loss of her husband and recent health concerns that she might be retiring before too long. Does she still have the fire? Sotomayor and Kagan both may be there for decades to come.
I think Michelle Obama, although she wields it indirectly.
Oprah has the most money and influence.
I guess it’s how you define power.
How about Safra Catz? If she drops the ball, I don’t see any competing technologies ready to step in without crippling a huge amount of companies’ dependence on Oracle in some way, shape or form.
Or what if Queen Rania lost her mind and asked all of her people / supporters / admirers to start hating Germans or something?
Surely it’s Wonder Woman? She has a magical lasso.