From a preliminary group of over 250 candidates from around the world, we select the 100 most influential women from eight categories or power bases: billionaires, business, celebrity, finance, media, philanthropy and NGOs, politics and technology.
To determine the rank within each category, as well as overall rank on the list of 100, we apply four metrics: money, media presence, spheres of influence and impact.
See Full Coverage of the World’s 100 Most Powerful Women
Money
First we assess the financial resources controlled by each person. For the business, finance, media and tech categories we look at 2013 company revenue. For celebrities we use income earned from the most recent FORBES Celebrity 100. We tally 2013 GDP for politicians, and net worth from the FORBES 2014 World’s Billionaires list for those with ten-figure bank accounts. Women from nonprofits and NGOs are rated on dollars spent fulfilling an organization’s mission in the last year.
Media
The media component calculates global media mentions from publications, including newspapers, specialized periodicals, newswires and broadcast transcripts from all over the world in the past 12 months. We add to that a total of each woman or her company's social media presence: Facebook fans,
Sphere of influence and impact
Next we determine if the candidate is powerful in multiple spheres. Casting a large shadow over one sphere isn't enough, with Oprah being the ideal example of being a media maven, entrepreneur, businesswoman, billionaire, and philanthropist who occasionally dabbles in political king making. Finally we score our candidates on we how actively and successfully they wield their power within their organization or brand, sector and the global stage.
See Full Coverage of the World’s 100 Most Powerful Women
Edited By: Caroline Howard
Assistant Editors: Kate Pierce, Chris Smith, Mehrunnisa Wani
Reporters: Emily Canal, Emily Inverso, Vanna Le, Clare O’Connor, Natalie Robehmed, Victoria Scanlan Stefanakos, Samantha Sharf with Alex Knapp, Halah Touryalai
Research: Sue Radlauer
Design/Photo: Merrilee Barton, Anton Klusener, Bob Mansfield, Robyn Selman
Digital: Nina Gould, Audrea Soong, Katheryn Thayer, Christian Wolan
Technology: Louie Torres, Dmitri Slavinsky
Video: Greg Andersson, Kelly Appleton, Meg Christensen, Brian Petchers, Tim Pierson, Will Sanderson, Amanda Tallini , Kirsten Taggart, Kieran Meadows
