Recently Forbes announced its annual list of the one hundred most powerful women in the world. Although the list occasionally includes prominent celebrities, the criteria upon which the list is based depends more on influence rather than wealth or power.

In an attempt to make the most complete list possible, Forbes looked to international government leaders, major non-profit organizations, and major corporations to find women and rate them based on media visibility as well as the size of the organization or country they run.

At the top of this year's list is Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor. This is Merkel's fourth consecutive year at the No. 1 spot on Forbes' list and she also happens to be up for reelection in September of 2009. She made the number one spot for leading the fourth-largest economic power in the world and her continued influence over an ever-growing number of people.

Sheila Bair, who ranked second in 2008, retained her No. 2 position on the 2009 list. As the Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Bair presided over the US bank bailouts over the last year and oversaw 77 bank takeovers.

The third position on the list of 100 most powerful women went to Indra Nooyi, chief Executive of PepsiCo. Other top ranks also went to CEOs; Cynthia Carroll of Anglo American and Irene Rosenfeld of Kraft Foods took fourth and sixth respectively.

Ho Ching, the fifth most powerful woman on Forbes' list, leads Singapore's sovereign wealth fund, Tamasek, which, under her guidance, has delivered incredible annual returns of 18%.

In addition to all the returning women on this year's list, there are also a few new ones. The new Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor is the third woman and first Hispanic to hold a seat on the Supreme Court and ranked No. 55 on Forbes' list as a result. Other US political influences include First Lady Michelle Obama who ranked No. 40 for her work in supporting working women, Janet Napolitano, the Homeland Security Secretary (No. 51) and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius (No. 57).

The list is full of international women in political leadership roles. Iceland's new prime minister, Johanna Sigurdardottir ranked at No. 75 and Queen Rania of Jordan, perhaps the most highly regarded woman in the Middle East, came in at No. 76.

Corporations dotted the list, too, with Carol Bartz, CEO of Yahoo! coming in at number 12 and Ursula Burns, CEO of Xerox and the first African-American woman to head a major US publicly-traded company, came in at No. 14.

Below is a listing of the top ten most powerful women in the world ranked by the Forbes business magazine.

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