Merkel named world’s most powerful woman

German chancellor Angela Merkel has retained her place as the most powerful woman in the world, according to the annual poll by Forbes magazine. The 55-year-old Christian Democrat politician, who faces an election in September that she is widely tipped to win, held onto the position for the fourth year running.

Merkel beat off competition for the top spot from second-placed Sheila Bair, who as chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation is responsible for maintaining confidence in the American banking system, and Indra Nooyi in third. As chairman and CEO of PepsiCo the 53-year-old Indian runs one of the largest food and beverage companies in the world.

Most of the top 25 is made up of business leaders, although South American heads of state Cristina Fernandez (Argentina, 11th) and Chilean Michelle Bachelet (22nd), and French finance minister Christine Lagarde (17th) also appear in the line-up, which is judged by what each woman's economic impact, media reach, and career accomplishment are deemed to be.

Hillary Clinton only makes it onto the list in 36th, one place beneath the Democratic speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi. What will be especially galling for Clinton, who could reasonably have expected to place higher in the list, is that the last woman before Merkel to top the poll was the Republican Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the position that, of course, Clinton now occupies.

Elsewhere, Michelle Obama enters the list at number 40, while new Supreme Court justice Sonia Sotomayor comes in at 54. Internationally, Sonia Gandhi, president of the Congress Party in India and political kingmaker, is 13th, the Queen comes in 42nd, one below Oprah Winfrey, with Barack Obama backer Penny Pritzker in 81st.

While Merkel is notable for making as little as possible of her gender, despite being the only women in the line-up at events such as G8 or Nato meetings, she was recently embroiled in an embarrassing election campaign in Berlin. The Christian Democrat candidate Vera Lengsfeld, a fellow former East German, ran a series of posters of herself and the chancellor in low-cut evening gowns promising that "We have more to offer". ·