The chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel has topped the Forbes list of 100 powerful women for the second year in a row. Not only is she in control of the large European country of Germany, but she is also using her power to tackle difficult issues. Merkel set a challenging target to cut carbon emissions in Europe and argued her case successfully with G-8 leaders. The powerful German woman has an approval rating in her home country of 75%, even after raising taxes. She doesn't see her sex as being an important issue though; "It seems to me that the fact that I am a woman is a bigger issue than the fact that I'm from the East. For me it isn't really important. I've only ever known myself as a woman."

Asian women feature prominently in the top ten of the most powerful women list, with Wu Yi of China in second place, Ho Ching of Singapore third, and the Indian Sonia Gandhi in sixth position. A total of 66 women on the list of one hundred are in powerful corporate positions, which should be encouragement for women that believe there's too many barriers holding them back from climbing the corporate ladder. The other 34 women on the Forbes power list include women in politics.

Women are are now taking charge and gaining positions of power in large multinational corporations, foundations, and important political positions.

Much of the world may not even recognize the face of Wu Yi, but she holds the powerful position of the Vice premier of the People's Republic of China. She has been nicknamed the "iron lady of China", and she needs to be made of iron as the U.S. treasury secretary Henry Paulson hasn't made life easy for her. The United States government has been pressuring China to revalue the Chinese yuan as the current artificially low value gives Chinese exporters an unfair competitive advantage. Wu Yi has stayed strong under pressure, saying that "We will not reform the yuan until the time is right even if there is external pressure."

American women dominated the top ten most powerful women in the world for 2006 with 7 out of 10 places, but lost some of their dominance in 2007 with 5 out of 10 women being from the United States.

Other notable women on the list include the talkshow queen Oprah Winfrey in 21st position, the Queen of England in 23rd, philanthropist Melinda Gates in 24th, senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in 25th place, Queen Rania of Jordan was 82nd, and American First Lady Laura Bush in 60th position.

Forbes ranks the most powerful women in the world by using a number of indicators to measure the power and influence of each woman on the list. Things like the number of times the woman was mentioned in the press and the economic impact that they have are taken into account.

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