Poor show for Brits on Forbes’ female list
It’s a rather poor show for Brits on Forbes’ annual ranking of the most powerful women with just two sneaking into the top 100. In Jubilee year, it seems fitting that Queen Elizabeth II is ranked 26. At 86, she’s the oldest woman on the list. And although it’s not mentioned, the Capitalist suspects she’s also the woman with the biggest array of matching hats and coats.
Harry Potter author JK Rowling sneaks in at 78. With her first foray into adult fiction not set to hit the shelves until next month, it’s still the young wizard who’s powering her estimated $17m earnings.
Two female heads of UK firms also make the cut, with Burberry chief executive Angela Ahrendts at number 45, and Pearson chief executive Marjorie Scardino at number 86. Both are from the US originally, but given their UK-based roles the Capitalist reckons we can get away with counting them as honorary Brits doubling our representatives to four.
For the second year in a row it’s Angela Merkel at the top. While the Eurozone crisis hasn’t done a lot for the world economy, her role as lead player in the never-ending negotiations has boosted her career.