By LARRISSA HUGGARD
The most powerful woman in Australia isn’t Julia Gillard.
She isn’t Gina Rinehart, she isn’t Megan Gale and she isn’t Gail Kelly.
Nope: according to a new list of Australia’s most powerful women, Minister for Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop is the most powerful woman in Australia.
In second place is Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s chief of staff, Peta Credlin, followed by Chairwoman of Telstra Catherine Livingstone.
Actresses including Nicole Kidman and Cate Blanchett also made the list, as did PUP senator Jacqui Lambie, and journalists Leigh Sales and Annabel Crabb.
The power list will be featured in October’s issue of Australian Women’s Weekly.
“Women tend to have an uneasy relationship with power – not so much the wielding of it, which they do as well as any man, but the owning of it,” the magazine’s editor-in-chief, Helen McCabe says.
“Our definition of power when compiling this list was not how impressive a woman’s title is or how large her corner office might be, but her ability to get things done.”
Click through to see the full list:
We’re happy to see a little bit of diversity injected into the list, but we’d like to make a few suggestions for next year’s round:
Lisa Wilkinson, television and magazine journalist.
Stella Young, comedian and disability activist.
Jayne Hrdlicka, CEO of Jetstar Group.
Julia Newton-Howes, CEO of Care Australia.
Oh, and Mamamia’s publisher Mia Freedman, of course…
Any more you’d like to add? Who would have been your number one?
You can see the full list in this week’s issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly, out Thursday, September 25th.
Top Comments
Where are the activists? I want Wendy Bacon on the list.
Love or loathe her,the woman with the greatest impact on Australian politics and society in the last quarter-century has been Pauline Hanson. The status quo has been running around like headless chooks, ever since, appealing to her legion of supporters.