The top-10 most powerful women for Forbes

Forbes magazine has presented its definitive ranking of the most powerful women of the world in 2015. This list includes women that have managed their leadership skills to gain a foothold in the world's most important areas of influence.

#1- Angela Merkel

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is Forbes' most powerful woman for tenth year in a row. She was also the magazine's fifth most powerful person in 2014. Merkel is the longest-serving elected EU head of state, and leads Europe's strongest economy. She has a doctorate as a physical chemist, and entered into politics in 1989, the same year that the Berlin wall was opened.

#2- Hillary Clinton

A US Democratic party politician, Clinton will run in the 2016 presidential race. She was the first lady to become a US senator, and wrote her story in a memoir that was put on sale in 2014 and became a bestseller.

#3- Melinda Gates

Melinda became best known for his husband, with whom she founded the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. A philanthropist, she donated $3.9bn to global development in 2014. Before that, she served at Microsoft, where she was project manager for Microsoft Bob, Microsoft Encarta and Expedia.

#4- Janet Yellen

Current FED head, Yellen made history in 2014 when she became the first woman to hold this position. She stepped down from the list's second place. When she was younger, Yellen worked as an assistant professor at Harvard and as a lecturer at The London School of Economics and Political Science.

#5- Mary Barra

General Motors chief executive officer, Barra is the first woman to become a CEO of a major global automaker, where she has been working since she was 18. Forbes emphasises that she “faced revelations about faulty ignition switches blamed for at least 74 deaths and 126 injuries, a 30-million car recall and pressure from investors to return more cash to shareholder."

#6- Christine Lagarde

Lagarde is the head of the International Monetary Fund, a body governing 188 countries. She assumed the position in 2011, when the world was suffering a financial crisis, and has managed to project annual global economic growth of 3.5% for 2015. She has served as French minister of Economic Affairs, Finance and Employment, Minister of Agriculture and Fishing and Minister of Trade.

#7- Dilma Rousseff

Current President of Brazil, Rousseff faces though criticism over corruption scandals related to Petrobras, the country's biggest oil company. She became Brazil's first female head of State in 2010. Before that, she participated in the militant activities of the National Liberation Command and advocated Marxist politics among labour union members and as editor of the newspaper The Piquet.

#8- Sheryl Sandberg

Facebook's Chief Operating Officer, Sandberg was the US #513 richest person in 2015. Gender equality activist, she launched the "Lean In Together" campaign in order to further gender equality at home and work. She also worked as en economist in the World Bank.

#9- Susan Wojcicki

Wojcicki is the world's largest plattform, Youtube's, CEO. She studied history and literature at Harvard University, and allowed Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google's founders, to set up the company's headquarters in her garage. She was named the “most important person in advertising” in 2011.

#10- Michelle Obama

Wife of the 44th US President of the United States and the first black first lady, Obama is very committed to the education of young girls and and pushed back against measures that would allow some schools to opt out of the federal dietary standards for school lunches.

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