For the second consecutive year, President Claudia Sheinbaum finds herself in heady company, ranked in the top five of Forbes magazine’s annual 100 Most Powerful Women in the World list.
Mexico’s president was named the fifth most-powerful woman in the world, based on a formula using metrics such as money, media impact, influence and spheres of power.Forbes wrote that “nearshoring — a business strategy of relocating production to countries geographically close to the end market — has put Sheinbaum at the center of the manufacturing transformation in North America.”
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The magazine also credited Sheinbaum for having made history in 2024 by becoming the first woman elected president in Mexico. That achievement was also cited last year when she was ranked the fourth most powerful woman on the Forbes list.
Forbes pointed out that while global approval ratings for female political leaders are declining, Sheinbaum has been able to buck the trend.
An Enkoll poll conducted for the newspaper El País in September found that Sheinbaum achieved a 78% approval rating, surpassing her predecessor and mentor Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
But in keeping with Forbes’ observation, the latest El País poll found that Sheinbaum’s approval rating had dipped 4% “after a month of conflicts in which the government lost control of the public agenda.”
Women are increasingly finding themselves at the center of power, Forbes wrote, “directing capital that determines the trajectory of artificial intelligence, managing supply chains governments compete to secure, and steadying institutions under historic pressure.”
The top five women on this year’s list hold positions of political authority. And while women only govern three of the world’s 25 largest economies, Forbes said they lead “tipping points” that define the geopolitical order.
For the fourth consecutive year, Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Union, and Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank, topped the list.
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takeichi, who took office in October, is a newcomer, coming in at No. 3 and bumping Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Sheinbaum down to fourth and fifth.
Forbes has compiled and published its 100 Most Powerful Women in the World list since 2004.
Such recognition is not new for Sheinbaum. A year ago, she was recognized by The Financial Times newspaper as one of the 25 Most Influential Women of 2024 and in April the Mexican president earned a spot in Time magazine’s’ 100 Most Influential People list.
