The influence of NYC's most prominent females is on a steep upward curve
Crain's New York Business' top eight most powerful women in New York. Clockwise from the top left: Mary Anne Tighe, Ruth Porat, Indra Nooyi, Patricia Harris, Sallie Krawcheck, Andrea Jung, Katherine Farley, and Kirsten Gillibrand.
Power: Ability to do or act; capacity of doing or accomplishing something
--Random House Unabridged Dictionary
One of the irresistible media features, especially in magazines, is lists. Whether based on measurable accomplishments or the judgment of editors, being included is invariably a plus; being excluded or dropped is a downer. U.S News has turned its annual rankings of academic and medical institutions into a lucrative business, with a perennial controversy about the standards it uses. Forbes has its lists of the rich; Fortune keeps track of companies by size and stature. There is hardly a category these days that is not subject to ranking. Among those that come to mind are Time magazine's annual "Time 100," listing the most influential people in the world, which includes a grand banquet as a reward; Vanity Fair's "New Establishment" is made up primarily of leaders in finance, entertainment, and the media; Institutional Investor does financial analysts; New York Magazine rates doctors; and just about every local magazine updates restaurants. Newsweek has featured top high schools for a decade or so, and under its new management revamped the format to make it easier to understand. Whether the value of these rankings is based on empirical data or opinions tossed around editorial tables, their popularity and often their impact can be significant. The result of these assessments, intended or otherwise, is to bestow power on the chosen.