Women on top mean business

Forbes magazines 2011 rankings of 100 most Powerful Women manifests the brewing change in the global political economy. Although, the Power Women list still boasts of celebrities like Lady Gaga (ranked 11), media heavyweights like Oprah Winfrey (14), and lifestyle gurus like Anna Wintour (69), it is appalling how women with economic and business backgrounds have come to dominate the list.
Taking stock of worlds most powerful women is an annual exercise at Forbes; the women are categorised in six categories: billionaires, business, lifestyle (including entertainment and fashion), media, nonprofits and politics.
Forbes applies three specific metrics to determine the rankings: earning power and financial authority; traditional and social media presence; and power base or spheres of influence.
With half of the 100 Powerful Women list occupied by businesswomen, Forbes list reveals that it is the womens corporate leadership and business acumen that is setting them apart from their female counterparts globally and across professions. Indra Nooyi (CEO, Pepsico), Sheryl Sandberg (COO, Facebook), and Irene Rosenfeld (CEO, Kraft Foods) were rated as among 2011s top 10 most powerful women on earth.
Power women from business segments no longer come from traditional sectors like FMCG, foods or consulting. The recent list contains many new entrants from technology and social networking spheres. They include Sheryl Sandberg (COO, Facebook) at number 5; Susan Wojcicki (SVP, Google) at 16; Cher Wang (co-founder, HTC) at 20; Carol Bartz (CEO, Yahoo!) at 37; and Katie Jacobs (VP, Twitter) at 56.
But that is not all! Women have been managing entire countries and are also credited with formulating and implementing sound economic policies. There are eight female heads of state in the top 100 list, and it is not a coincidence that a majority of them are presiding over a period of economic boom, falling unemployment and stable macro-economy.
Take Angela Merkel for instance, rated worlds most powerful women by Forbes this year. The German Chancellor has not only been able to keep the domestic economy on track while insulating Germany from the eurozone debt crisis, she is also highly regarded as the most prominent personality in the European Union, playing a balancing act and treading cautiously for stability and cohesion of the Euro-zone.
Christine Lagarde, former French finance minister (now managing director at the IMF) is also part of the list at number 9. Then there are other heads of state whose economies are robust and in good shape. At number 3 is Brazilian president, Dilma Rousseff; Argentine president Cristina Fernandez at 17; Australian PM Julia Gillard at 23; and Yingluck Shinawatra, the young Thai PM, is ranked 59.
The Forbes list has women representation from various professions; however, it seems to be reigned by women who were born and bred in the West, or have Western career origins. The dismal representation of women from emerging economies is perplexing. Is it due to brain drain or is it that women in the emerging economies are still grappling with the glass-ceiling phenomenon are intriguing questions.
"Women around the world are many steps closer to attaining economic and political equality - but there is still much work to be done", highlighted a report released by UN Women (the UN agency founded in 2010 to campaign for global gender equality). More alarming is the statistic mentioned in the report which estimates that over 53 per cent of the worlds women were in work in 2009, unchanged since 1991.
While women on top may have benefitted from a mix of personal traits and enabling environments, women in the developing world haven had the latter. To shake things up, they need to take charge and set aside the anti-developmental societal norms, cultural crutches and status quo. After all, power is a state of mind, not a state of being!