Secrets of the Lives of the 5 Most Powerful Women in the World

 

"Democratic countries where human rights are more respected and where there are women who can reach leadership positions in society are also the countries most prepared to face the Coronavirus crisis," lead editor Maggie McGrath told Forbes magazine and her annual ranking of "The Most Powerful Women in the World," a platform that shows that women are capable of assuming leadership positions and power.

 

Angela Merkel

 

The current German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, 66, is the 14th time in Forbes' "Most Powerful Women in the World" list.

 

Born in Hamburg on July 17, 1954, Merkel is the daughter of Lutheran pastor Horst Kassner and Herlind Ginch and has two younger brothers, Marcus and Irene.

 

Merkel has no children, and first married physicist Ulrich Merkel between 1977 and 1982, and since 1998 she has been the wife of chemistry professor Joachim Sawyer, although she still retains her first husband's title.

 

She began her political career very early and has a long history of public work, she was a member of the Free German Youth League, joined the Democratic Awakening Movement after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and headed the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) from 2000 to 2018.

 

She has served as chancellor since 2005 with coalitions from her party and other related parties after winning the 2005, 2009, 2013, and 2017 elections.

 

Also, she is one of the most heavily weighted political leaders in the EUROPEAN Union.

 

Christine Lagarde

 

Second on the list is Christine Lagarde, 65, the current president of the European Central Bank, a position she has held since November 2019 and is the first woman to hold the bank.

 

Lagarde was born in Paris on January 1, 1956, the daughter of a teacher, Pierre, and Thomas, whose social status is divorced, and since 2006 has been in a relationship with businessman Khabir Giucanti, a vegetarian who does not drink alcohol, and during her youth, she was a member of the French swimming team.

 

In her home country, she held various positions, including the ministries of agriculture and fisheries, trade, economy, finance, and industry.

 

She was also the first woman to serve as Minister of Economic Affairs of the G8 and was director of the International Monetary Fund from 2011 to 2019.

 

Kamala Harris

 

Current U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, 56, came in third.

 

Harris was born on October 20, 1964, in Oakland, California, and is of Indian descent to her mother and Jamaican on her father's side, and has been married to Douglas Emhoff since 2014.

 

She also began her political career early, from 1990 to 1998 as deputy attorney general in Alameda County, California, and served as head of the San Francisco Department of Biology and Communities since 2000, as district attorney for San Francisco From 2004 to 2011, and California attorney general from 2011 to 2017.

 

She has been a senator from California since 2017 and has just been inaugurated as vice president of the United States after Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in the last presidential election, the first woman to hold the position and the first person with brown skin to reach that position, as well as the first person of Asian descent to do so.

 

Ursula von der leyen

 

Ursula von der leyen , 62, a German politician and current president of the European Commission, ranked fourth on the list.

 

Ursula is the daughter of Heidi Adele Albrecht and Ernest Albrecht, a descendant of the prestigious 19th-century businessman, Baron Ludwig Nob, and the Brussels-born woman married on October 8, 1958, from Heiko von der Leyen, who is of noble descent and has seven children.

 

In 1990 she joined the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), angela Merkel's German political party, and was elected to the Lower Saxony Parliament in 2003 and from this year until 2005 she was part of the Government of Lower Saxony and served as family minister.

 

She also accompanied Angela Merkel as a minister in the federal government, where she initially took over the family and security portfolio after the 2005 elections, a post for which she was re-elected in 2009, and in 2013, she changed that portfolio to the Ministry of Defence, and since 2019, she has chaired the European Commission.

 

Melinda Gates

 

In fifth place is Melinda Gates, a 56-year-old former Microsoft CEO, wife of Bill Gates, and co-founder of the world's largest private charity known as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

 

Melinda was born on August 15, 1964, in Dallas, Texas, the second of four children born to Ellen Agnes Amerland and Joseph French Jr.

 

She has been with Bill Gates since 1987 and has been his wife since 1994 and has three children.

 

The 2019 author of The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World is one of the oldest in the magazine's ranking of the world's most powerful women, appearing years ago among the top 10.

 

The Forbes list includes up to 100 strong women, examples of work and women's empowerment, and in the "Top Ten", there are five other names of well-known entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs:

 

American Mary Barra, 59, CEO of General Motors.

 

Current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (80).

 

Ana Putin, 60, president of Santander Bank and a board member of its British subsidiary, is part of the Coca-Cola Group's management.

 

Abigail Johnson, 59, president of Fidelity Investments.

 

American Jill Boudreau, 61, executive director of Anthem video games.

 

According to Forbes, the top 10 on the list, along with the other 90, have done work and activities ranging from "fighting the epidemic to contributing to the rejuvenation of American politics, all of which contribute to making history."