Women in Charge

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Fortune magazine just loves lists. Each year, it publishes lists of America's and the world's most-admired companies, the world's 500 largest companies, the 100 best companies to work for, the best companies for minorities, the 100 fastest-growing companies, the most powerful people in business, the top Wall Street analysts, and much more. Their most famous list is the Fortune 500 roster of America's biggest enterprises.

Of course, these lists wouldn't exist if we readers didn't actually enjoy scanning them to see who or what is ranked where. So, for your edification, here's a brief roundup of Fortune's latest list -- of the 50 most powerful women in business.

The top 10 are:

1. Carly Fiorina, chairman and CEO of Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ)
   
2. Meg Whitman, president of eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY)
   
3. Andrea Jung, chairman and CEO of Avon (NYSE: AVP)
   
4. Anne Mulcahy, chairman and CEO of Xerox (NYSE: XRX)
   
5. Marjorie Magner, chairman and CEO of Citigroup's (NYSE: C) Global Consumer Group
   
6. Karen Katen, executive vice president of Pfizer (NYSE: PFE)
   
7. Oprah Winfrey, chairman of privately held Harpo Inc.
   
8. Indra Nooyi, president and CFO of PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP)
   
9. Pat Woertz, executive vice president of ChevronTexaco (NYSE: CVX)
   
10. Betsy Holden, co-CEO of Kraft Foods (NYSE: KFT)

Fortune notes that, "When [this list] launched in 1998, heading a $3 billion business practically guaranteed inclusion. Not anymore. We judge women in for-profit businesses by four key criteria: the size and importance of the woman's business, her clout inside her company, the arc of her career, and her influence on mass culture and society."

You can scan the full list here (subscription required). And if you'd like to read more about investing and money management from a woman's perspective, check out the always amusing and informative articles by Fool Dayana Yochim (her archive is here).

If all this talk about career achievement has you fired up for some portfolio achievement, make sure your brokerage account is in order at our Broker Center, and then consider signing up for monthly stock ideas via our suite of investment idea newsletters.