Browsing through Forbes' list of "The World's 100 Most Powerful Women" and "The World's Most Powerful People," something seems off about the ranking system.
Here are a few of the "Powerful People" rankings:
#6 Angela Merkel
#9 Sonia Gandhi
#16 Dilma Rousseff
#20 Hillary Clinton
#64 Oprah Winfrey
Now here are some rankings from the "Powerful Woman" list:
#1 Michelle Obama
#3 Oprah Winfrey
#4 Angela Merkel
#5 Hillary Clinton
#96 Dilma Rousseff
So Michelle Obama is a more Powerful Woman than Winfrey, Merkel, or Clinton, but a less Powerful Person than any of them - less powerful than the entire Powerful People list in fact (she's not on it). Angela Merkel is a More Powerful Person than Michelle or Oprah, but she's a less Powerful Woman. The world holds only 15 people more Powerful than Dilma Rousseff, but 95 more Powerful Women.
What gives? Does the "Powerful Women" list measure a different kind of power than the "Powerful People" list? As a friend commented when I raised this question on facebook:
It's simple. When calculating woman-power you get negative points for having a job men would like to have, like head-of-state of major economic power.