New York Daily News Reports
It's another first for this First Lady. Michelle Obama made her debut Wednesday on Forbes magazine's annual list of the world's 100 most powerful women, taking the 40th spot.
"Not only is she a First Lady, she's the first African-American First Lady and that accords her a certain amount of power," said Heidi Brown, a ForbesWoman staffer who helped compile the list.
When ranking the women, Brown said they take into consideration how much attention a candidate gathers - and Michele Obama is a media magnet.
"She's done a lot to get her message out," Brown said. "She's been effective at reaching out not only to the media, but to regular people as well."
Two years ago, then-First Lady Laura Bush was 60th on the Forbes list.
Joining Michelle Obama on the Forbes list for the first time are other members of the still new Obama administration like Homeland Security honcho Janet Napolitano (51), SEC chief Mary Schapiro (55) and Health and Human Services head Kathleen Sebelius (56).
Newly sworn-in Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor also debuted on list, in 54th place. Her fellow justice and New Yorker, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, was 48th.
Sotomayor and Ginsberg may be the pride of New York, but Forbes deemed Indra Nooyi the city's most powerful woman.
The chief executive officer of PepsiCo was ranked third - the same spot she occupied last year.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was 36th - down from the 28th spot she occupied on the list last year when she was a presidential candidate.
Brown said another woman to watch for is Sallie Krawcheck (87), who after being forced out of Citigroup bounced back as Chief Executive for Global Wealth Management for Bank of America.
Another high-powered New York executive, Mary Erdoes of J.P. Morgan, was ranked 100.
This year's list does not include New York based media molls such as "Today" show host Meredith Viera, "CBS Evening News" anchor Katie Couric or "Good Morning America" co-host Diane Sawyer.
Forbes included them on a separate list of media movers and shakers last month.
"They wield a different a different kind of influence," Brown said.
For the fourth straight year, German Chancellor Angela Merkel took the top spot, edging out Sheila Bair, the head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and last year's runner-up.
The cover girl this year was Internet queen Carol Bartz of Yahoo!, who was No. 12 on the list.
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