women in power

finally, a new day begins. Signifies a new beginning for all.

ed: well, i guess this isn't going to be ur usual kind of blog - it'd serve to inform, entertain and hopefully educate? sounds like a familiar motto? :)

aarthi: now you can finally understand that your tutor's actually rather complex? love oxymorons to bits :)
Life is actually simple, it's us Man who make it complex. So it's either up to you to make the complex simple, or just learn to embrace the complexity. Some of us try so hard to keep meaning while others are quite willing to throw it away at every opportunity. Like I've said before: too much negativity in the world these days.. let us not contribute as well.

to all out there, if you would like to post an entry, not just tag... let me know yah??

read this today...thought it'd be good to know who the women in power around the world are! If you want the full list, go check out p42-43 of ST today.

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July 30, 2005

Women power

NEW YORK - US SECRETARY of State Condoleezza Rice is the world's most powerful woman, beating a host of presidents, celebrities and chief executives to top Forbes magazine's global ranking of feminine clout. The list was Forbes' second ranking of the world's 100 most powerful women and left Dr Rice two-for-two, having topped the 2004 version as US national security adviser.

Ms Elizabeth MacDonald, senior editor at Forbes, cited Dr Rice for 'reinvigorating the role of Secretary of State with a form of diplomatic activism that we haven't seen in a while'.

Chinese Vice-Premier Wu Yi is runner-up for the second year in a row, the highest-ranked among nine Asians on the annual list.

The chief executive and executive director of Singapore's Temasek Holdings, Ms Ho Ching, is in 30th position.

Former Indonesian president Megawati Sukarnoputri, No. 8 on the list last year, not only lost her top 10 position but fell out of the rankings altogether following her failed re-election bid.

A similar fate befell India's ruling Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi, who was deemed the third most powerful woman last year but could not make it to the top 100 a year later.

There was better news, for now at least, for beleaguered Philippine President Gloria Arroyo, who jumped five places to take the No. 4 ranking this year, behind newcomer Yulia Tymoshenko, the Ukrainian Prime Minister who made her debut in third position.

The highest-ranking businesswoman on the list was Ms Margaret Whitman, the chief executive of the wildly successful Internet auction site eBay, who was in fifth position, ahead of Xerox chief executive Anne Mulcahy.

US talk show queen Oprah Winfrey, who last month topped the Forbes list of most powerful celebrities, broke into the all-women top 10 at No. 9 - a huge leap from her 62nd ranking last year.

Rounding out the top 10 was Mrs Melinda Gates, wife of billionaire Microsoft founder Bill Gates and co-founder of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The Forbes rankings are based on a composite of visibility - measured by press citations - and economic impact.

The latter reflects three things: status (a prime minister is more powerful than a senator); the size of the economic sphere over which the person holds sway; and a multiplier that aims to make different economic yardsticks comparable.

A politician, for example, is assigned a gross national product number but a low multiplier, while an executive is assigned a company's assets but gets a high multiplier.

'We wanted to find women who had both global economic impact and cultural impact,' Ms MacDonald said.

She added that one 'disturbing trend' identified by Forbes researchers was the continued disparity in salaries between female and male executives.

'When the Wall Street Journal coined the term 'glass ceiling' in 1985, women only earned two-thirds of men's salaries,' Ms MacDonald said.

'Now it's about 75 per cent. That's an improvement that's working at a glacial pace.' -- AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE