Kamala Harris, Abigail Johnson, Ursula von der Leyen and Ana Patricia BotÃn are some of the names that head the ‘top ten’ of the list that the economic magazine Forbes has made of the 100 most powerful women in the world this 2021.
In the ranking They range from leading singers like Taylor Swift or Beyoncé Knowles to data engineers like Frances Haugen, journalists like Oprah Winfrey, politicians like Magdalena Anderson or Sanna Marin, and scientists like immunologist and BioNTech co-founder, Özlem Türeci.
Like every year, and for 18 years, Forbes has compiled a list of the most influential women in the world. This is the third year that the German Angela Merkel is not at number 1 on the list. Her removal from her chancery has given way to another woman who is at the top right now. This is the philanthropist and billionaire MacKenzie Scott, the third richest woman in the world. Behind her is the vice president of the United States, Kamala Harris, followed by Christine Lagarde, the president of the European Central Bank. 
Taylor Swift is ranked 78th on the Forbes list of the most powerful women in the world.
The 2021 World’s 100 Most Powerful Women hail from 30 different countries and work in different industries. This year, Queen Elizabeth II has fallen 24 places to number 70 due to her few public appearances and the reputation crisis that affected the British royal family, due to accusations of racist treatment of Meghan Markle or the prince’s sex scandals Andrew.
These are the 6 most powerful women in the world, according to the Forbes list:
Philanthropist and writer
Mackenzie Scott
MacKenzie Scott is an American philanthropist and writer. In 1992 she received a BA in English from Princeton University with highest honors. She was married to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos for 25 years. In mid-2019 they divorced and she received 25% of her stake in Amazon.
In May 2019, shortly after announcing the terms of the divorce on Twitter, he signed a gift pledge, pledging to give away at least half of his wealth over the course of his lifetime. In 2020, she announced just over $5.8 billion in donations to some 500 nonprofit organizations; in June 2021, Scott donated $2.74 billion to 286 institutions.
Scott, who has published two novels, was a student of Nobel laureate Toni Morrison at Princeton and worked as a research assistant for her.
Vice President of the United States
Kamala Harris
Born in Oakland to immigrant parents (her mother was from India and her father from Jamaica), on January 20, 2021, Kamala Harris became the first woman and black to serve as Vice President of the United States. In 1981 she graduated in political science and economics from Howard University, in Washington DC.
Harris has been a pioneer at other American institutions. In 2016, she was the first Indian-American woman to be elected to the United States Senate. And in 2010, she became the first African-American woman and the first woman to serve as California’s attorney general.
IMF Director
Christine Lagarde
Lagarde became the first woman to head the European Central Bank on November 1, 2019. As the head of European monetary policy, she is currently dealing with the covid-19 pandemic and its economic consequences. From 2011 to mid-2019, Lagarde headed the International Monetary Fund to ensure the stability of the global monetary system. Lagarde was the first woman to hold that position. She was also the first woman to chair the Baker & McKenzie law firm.
Lagarde graduated from the Faculty of Law of the University of Paris X Nanterre (France) and completed a master’s degree in Political Science at the Institute of Political Studies of Aix-en-provence. Discussing the 2008 financial crisis, Lagarde has pointed to “groupthink” in the male-dominated industry and has called for gender reform.
CEO of General Motors
Mary Barra
Mary Barra has been the CEO of General Motors since 2014, when she became the first woman to lead one of the Big Three automakers in the United States. She has invested billions of dollars in electric vehicles, autonomous vehicles, and Maven, a shared ride platform.
In the spring of 2020, he switched GM production lines to help Ventec Life Systems make ventilators during the first wave of the covid pandemic.
General Motors has always scored very highly on gender equality. In 2018 it was one of only two global companies without a pay gap.
Co-Chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Melinda French Gates
As co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, she is one of the most powerful women in global philanthropy. French has dedicated much of her work to advocating for the rights of women and girls.
In early May 2021, Bill and Melinda Gates announced their divorce, however they remain co-chairs of the foundation. Following the deal, Melinda also became a billionaire after Bill Gates transferred $2.4 billion worth of shares in him.
One of the projects she is currently carrying out is to bridge the financing gap for female entrepreneurs, through her project investment and incubation company, Pivotal Ventures.
President and CEO of Fidelity Investments
Abigail Johnson
Abigail Johnson is an American businesswoman and investor and CEO of Fidelity Investments (FMR) since 2014. She also chairs the sister company Fidelity International.
Johnson currently owns an estimated 24.5% stake in the company, which has $4.2 billion in assets.
In 2018, Fidelity launched a platform that allows institutional investors to trade bitcoin and ether. While in college, he worked summers at Fidelity, joining full-time as an analyst in 1988 after receiving an MBA from Harvard.
