German Chancellor Angela Merkel. AP FILE PHOTO
German Chancellor Angela Merkel remains as the most powerful woman in the world, according to the latest list released by Forbes Magazine on Tuesday.
Merkel topped the magazine’s annual list of World’s 100 Powerful Women for the sixth consecutive year. This also marks the 11th time that Merkel, the first woman German Chancellor, has appeared in the magazine’s ranking.
READ: Germany’s Merkel still world’s most powerful woman—Forbes
Following Merkel is US presidential candidate and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
United States Federal Reserve Chair and American economist Janet Yellen and billionaire Melinda Gates are the world’s third and fourth most powerful women, respectively.
Last year, Gates was in third place while Yellen was in the fourth spot.
Rounding up the top 10 are General Motors CEO Mary Barra, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, HP CEO Meg Whitman, and Santander Group CEO Ana Patricia Botin.
For this year, Forbes did not include women from the entertainment industry into consideration, “making room for a wide inclusion of female leaders across the globe who have been elected to office.”
This year’s ranking thus represents women from seven categories: billionaires, business, finance, media, politics, philanthropists and nongovernment organizations, and technology.
“There has been an influx of women elected to office in the past year, and the number of women leaders in the world has more than doubled since 2005. As a result, nearly a third of the women on this year’s list lead a nation or play a pivotal role in calling the shots in their country,” Forbes said in a statement.
Among the newcomers in the list include Lens Technology CEO Zhou Qunfei, Taiwan President Tsai Ing-Wen and The Economist Editor-in-Chief Zanny Minton Beddoes.
Forbes noted that this year’s powerful women governs or directly influences more than 3.6 billion people and controls nearly $1 trillion in revenues.
The magazine uses four metrics to determine who will be included in its annual list: money, media presence, impact, and spheres of influence. CDG
READ: Sy-Coson, Gokongwei-Pe among Asia’s powerful biz women – Forbes