Past Century Most Powerful Women

 Jane Addams (1860-1935)

Any down-on-his-luck person who's been helped by a social worker has Jane Addams to thank. In grimy late 19th century Chicago, she pioneered the idea of settlement houses that offered night classes for adults, a kindergarten, a coffeehouse, a gym and social groups meant to create a sense of community among the downtrodden of the neighborhood. Her Hull House was a residence for about 25 women, and at its peak was visited by more than 2,000 people a week. As her community influence grew, Addams was appointed to prominent state governmental and community boards, where she focused on improving sanitation, midwifery and food safety and reducing narcotics consumption. An ardent pacifist and outspoken advocate for women's suffrage, Addams was also the first American woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

Hull House in March 2010

 Corazon Aquino (1933-2009)

Cory Aquino had no political ambitions of her own until her husband Senator Benigno Aquino was assassinated in 1983. Almost instantly, she became a unifying force against the autocratic President Ferdinand Marcos and ran in the 1986 presidential election. The ruling powers declared Marcos the winner, but a series of peaceful demonstrations along with backing from the church finally put Aquino in power. Her sudden ascension as the first female President of the Philippines was the battered islands' first step toward democracy. Weathering both coup attempts and corruption charges, Aquino was unable to push through much of the social reform that her supporters had hoped for. But when she stepped down in 1992, she still stood tall as the people's choice.

 Rachel Carson (1907-1964)

If it weren't for Rachel Carson, the green movement might not exist today. Her monumental book Silent Spring documented the devastating effects of pesticides like DDT on birds and the environment, and the revelations eventually helped lead to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency. In addition, Carson wrote feature articles and novels about natural history and the environment, including her prize-winning sea trilogy (Under the Seawind, The Sea Around Us and The Ends of the Sea), which explained oceanic life in accessible story form.

Silent Spring

Under the Sea Wind

 Coco Chanel (1883-1971)

Coco Chanel revolutionized women's fashion in the early 20th century by introducing a looser, more comfortable silhouette that freed women from the corsets and frills that then dominated the apparel industry. Born into poverty in Saumur, France, Chanel worked as a cabaret singer before opening a hat shop in 1910 with the financial backing of a lover. She soon turned her attention to clothing and became the first designer to create with jersey — a cheap fabric used in men's underwear at the time — and bring a menswear aesthetic to women's clothing. Chanel's tweed blazer and skirt, two-toned ballet flat, little black dress, costume jewelry and quilted bag with chain strap remain staples in the fashion pantheon, and contemporary labels introduce reiterations of them season after season. In 1923, she launched Chanel No. 5, marking the first time a fashion designer had forayed into fragrance. She closed her shops at the beginning of World War II in 1939 and did not return to fashion until 1954, when she debuted bell-bottoms. Chanel died in 1971; Karl Lagerfeld has served as head designer of the house since 1983.

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 Julia Child (1912-2004)

With her breakout 3-lb. cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking (co-authored with Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle) and subsequent public television show The French Chef, Julia Child not only introduced meatloaf-reliant Americans to the delights of French cuisine but also enlightened a fine-food-fearing nation that cooking should be a craft, not a chore. The hearty wife of an American diplomat, Child honed her culinary skills at Le Cordon Bleu while the couple lived in Paris, breaking down the barrier that up until then had reserved gourmet kitchens for male chefs. For a decade, Child entertained viewers with her casual approach and free spirit, proving that anyone could be a good chef with the "freshest and finest ingredients" and a good dose of butter. "Our Lady of the Ladle," as TIME dubbed her in 1966, became America's most beloved chef, all the while changing the nation's appetite and attitude toward fine food.

The Cordon Bleu school in Ottawa, Canada

Mastering the Art of French Cooking

 

 Hillary Clinton (1947-Present)

When her husband Bill Clinton ran for President in 1992, he famously told American voters they would be getting "two for the price of one." Hillary Clinton had been a fierce advocate for victims of child abuse since her law-school days, and throughout her tenure as First Lady, she became a leading voice on the global stage on behalf of women in the developing world. And while many political wives are content with being a behind-the-scenes adviser, Clinton decided in 2000 to embark on a second career, this time with her name on the ticket. As New York Senator, she won over a state skeptical of the Chicago-born, Arkansas-reared celebrity by leading the efforts to boost funding for the recovery in lower Manhattan after the Sept. 11 attacks. She also staked her claim as an authority on military affairs, gaining the trust of the armed forces and several Senate Republicans. Indeed, when she became Secretary of State in 2009, her vision for a military escalation in Afghanistan won out over competing plans. And while her attempt to become the first female President of the United States came up short in 2008, she paid no attention to her supporters who asked her not to join the cause of her Democratic competitor, Barack Obama, saying that wasn't why she had "spent the past 35 years in the trenches."

 Marie Curie (1867-1934)

Two-time Nobel laureate Marie Curie discovered polonium and radium, founded the concept of radiology and — above all — made the possibility of a scientific career seem within reach for countless girls and women around the world. The first woman to receive the Nobel Prize and the first female Professor of General Physics in the Faculty of Sciences at the Sorbonne in Paris, Curie was beloved by her colleagues for her calm, singular focus, lack of pretense and professional drive. Her work with radiation is now part of the most sophisticated cancer-treatment protocols in the world, though she herself succumbed to leukemia after decades of daily radiation exposure.

 Aretha Franklin (1942-Present)

The Queen of Soul, best known for demanding R-E-S-P-E-C-T, is still, at 68, a powerhouse vocalist, pianist and songwriter. Aretha Franklin was the first woman to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in 1987; she performed at President Barack Obama's Inauguration; and she holds the record for most Grammys for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance, with 11. Perhaps most notably, she's a self-taught piano prodigy who recorded her first album at the age of 14. What sets Franklin apart from her contemporaries is the passion she puts forth in her music; as TIME put it in 1968, "This is why her admirers call her Lady Soul."

Indira Gandhi (1917-1984)

She was the nation's daughter, brought up under the close watch of both her father Jawaharlal Nehru, who was India's first Prime Minister after decades of British rule, and her country. When Indira Gandhi (no relation to Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi) was elected Prime Minister in 1966, a TIME cover line read, "Troubled India in a Woman's Hands." Those steady hands went on to steer India, not without controversy, for much of the next two decades through recession, famine, the detonation of the nation's first atomic bomb, a corruption scandal and a civil war in neighboring Pakistan that, under her guidance, led to the creation of a new state, Bangladesh. By the time she was assassinated, in 1984, Gandhi was the world's longest-serving female Prime Minister, a distinction she holds to this day.

Jawaharlal Nehru

1st Prime Minister of India

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

(Mahatma Gandhi)

 Estée Lauder (1908-2004)Born in Queens, N.Y., Estée Lauder got her start in beauty at an early age by helping her uncle, a chemist, mix creams and fragrances for his skincare business in their kitchen. In 1946, Lauder and her husband Joseph founded the Estée Lauder Co. with just four products. To make up for a small advertising budget, Lauder sold persistently, regularly giving free demonstrations at beauty salons and stopping women on Fifth Avenue to try her products. She also launched the "gift with purchase" deal that is now commonplace at cosmetics counters. In 1953, the company debuted Youth Dew, a bath oil and perfume that became so popular, women used it by the bottle in their bathwater. Even after 40 years in the industry — which saw the company expand to include sister lines Prescriptives, Clinique, Origins and Aramis — Lauder insisted on attending every new counter or store launch. The cosmetics giant died in 2004; her grandson William serves as CEO of the company, which has expanded into a beauty empire based on science and to this day carries on Lauder's legacy as a philanthropist and innovator and the first female magnate of beauty.

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Prescriptives

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 Madonna (1958-Present)

Every pop star of the last two to three decades has Madonna to thank in some part for his or her success. The triple threat who does it all — chart-topping singer, energetic dancer and all-around provocateur — left her home state of Michigan with $35 in her pocket and a dream to make it in New York City, and far exceeded that goal with hit singles like "Vogue," "Like a Virgin" and "Ray of Light." The one-named wonder's memorable music videos and live performances, which almost always include extravagant dance numbers, over-the-top outfits and eyebrow-raising concepts, made her one of MTV's most popular artists. After causing no shortage of controversy with her unabashed sexuality and outspokenness, Madonna has since turned some of her efforts toward being a mother and humanitarian — but not before cementing her place in pop culture as the best-selling female rock artist of the 20th century.

 Margaret Mead (1901-1978)

Of her life's work, cultural anthropologist, museum curator and feminist scholar Margaret Mead once said, "I have spent most of my life studying the lives of other peoples — faraway peoples — so that Americans might better understand themselves." Mead's professor and mentor Franz Boas is credited with the concept of cultural relativism in American anthropology, but it was Mead who truly eradicated the concept of the "savage" through her extensive fieldwork in the Pacific. Mead began taking notes on her observations of human behavior after her mother encouraged her interest in studying the development of her younger siblings. This ability to record breathtaking amounts of longitudinal data helped her garner a Ph.D. from Columbia in 1929 and become a curator of the American Museum of Natural History in 1934. Her seminal book, Coming of Age in Samoa, helped many Americans understand the universality of their own experiences for the first time.

Coming of Age in Samoa

American Museum of Natural History

Golda Meir (1898-1978)

Once called "the only man in the Cabinet," Golda Meir was a formidable figure in Israeli politics. Tall, blunt and determined, she fervently devoted her life to the service of the Jewish state she helped found. After an illustrious political career, including service as Israel's Labor Minister and Foreign Minister, she took the country's reins as Prime Minister in 1969, when Israel was prosperous and still euphoric over its victory in the Six-Day War against Egypt, Jordan and Syria. But another war, just a few years later, would prove to be her downfall. Israel's lack of preparedness for the fourth Arab-Israeli war, called the Yom Kippur War, stunned the nation. Though Israel went on to win the war, with the U.S.'s assistance, the government was severely criticized. With much of the blame directed her way, Meir stepped down in 1974. Despite ending her life of public service under a cloud, there was never a question of Meir's faithfulness to her country. "There is a type of woman," Meir once said, "who does not let her husband narrow her horizon."

Angela Merkel (1954-Present)

Germans chose Angela Merkel as their first female Chancellor because they knew they could rely on her steady hand. Trained as a physicist, Merkel entered politics as a second career after the fall of the Berlin Wall. She worked her way up the ranks of the right-of-center Christian Democratic Union and became the protégé of famed Chancellor Helmut Kohl, who tapped Merkel to become Minister for the Environment. In 1999, she demonstrated she was beholden to nobody when she wrote an editorial criticizing Kohl for his involvement in a slush-fund scandal, becoming the first member of his Cabinet to break with him. When she became the country's first Chancellor from the former communist East Germany in 2005, she demonstrated her ability to get along with others while cobbling together a diverse parliamentary coalition. She always took in stride the way Kohl referred to her as "my girl," and her unassuming presence has been just right for Germany as it reasserts itself on the global stage. (She has quietly pushed for a German seat on the U.N. Security Council.) Five years into her chancellorship, Merkel's voice has become a global standard, whether it's advocating on the issue of climate change or speaking out in support of austerity amid the economic crisis.

Sandra Day O'Connor (1930-Present)

Before Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, there was just one woman cloaked in the black robe of the United States' highest court. Fulfilling a campaign promise to break that gender barrier, President Ronald Reagan nominated Sandra Day O'Connor in 1981. The former Republican Arizona state senator was unanimously confirmed by Congress, ending 191 years of the court as an exclusively male institution. Though she was nominated by a Republican President, O'Connor did not always tow the party line. In her 24 years on the bench, O'Connor was often the court's crucial swing vote, determining 5-4 rulings on important cases involving abortion, affirmative action, election law, sexual harassment and the death penalty, among others. Her tenure was especially meaningful for the woman who, though she finished third in her class at Stanford Law in 1952, could not find work at a law firm upon graduation due to her gender. She said upon her confirmation, "I think the important fact about my appointment is not that I will decide cases as a woman but that I am a woman who will get to decide cases."

 Rosa Parks (1913-2005)

"The only tired I was, was tired of giving in," Rosa Parks would go on to say about her decision not to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Ala., bus on Dec. 1, 1955. This wasn't the first time the seamstress had chosen not to give in. Parks had been an active member of the local NAACP chapter since 1943 and had marched on behalf of the Scottsboro boys, who were arrested in Alabama in 1931 for raping two white women. But it was her simple act of refusal, a move which landed Parks in prison, that set in motion the Montgomery bus boycott and kicked off the civil rights movement. So when the bulldogs and water hoses were unleashed a decade later in the streets of Birmingham, the protesters knew to stand their ground. "Over my head, I see freedom in the air," they sang.

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The Scottsboro Boys,

with attorney Samuel Leibowitz,

under guard by the state militia, 1932

Jiang Qing (1914-1991)

Better known as "the Madame" to Chairman Mao, Jiang Qing never shied away from the grasping of power. After a colorful adulthood that included an acting career, failed marriages and jail time for alleged radical activity — a past she took pains to erase later by ordering that any documents detailing her life be destroyed — Jiang became wife to Mao Zedong in 1938. She made constant bids for power up the ladder of the Communist Party and eventually came to lead the Gang of Four, whose members included Zhang Chunqiao, Yao Wenyuan and Wang Hongwen. Together they reigned over every cultural institution in China, ordered the destruction of countless ancient books, buildings and paintings and were responsible for the violent persecution of much of China's population. Death tolls from that time are unknown, but numbers run as high as 500,000 from 1966-69. While some historians claim the Gang of Four were the masterminds behind the Cultural Revolution, Jiang blamed Mao when she famously said, "I was Mao's dog; I bit whom he said to bite." Rather than apologize for the criminal charges against her, she spent a decade in prison before taking her life in 1991.

 Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962)

As wife of the 32nd President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt challenged and transformed the historically ceremonial, behind-the-scenes First Lady role. She increased her public presence by participating in radio broadcasts, authoring a daily syndicated column, "My Day," and holding weekly, women-only press conferences (she was the first presidential wife to do so) to discuss women's issues, her daily activities and breaking news. Along the way, she became one of her husband's unofficial advisers and informants, lobbying for civil rights policies to assist the poor, minorities and women, helping to formulate New Deal social-welfare programs and pushing for the creation of the United Nations. Following her husband's death, Roosevelt continued her humanitarian efforts as a member of the first American delegation to the U.N. and helped develop the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and UNICEF. In recognizing Roosevelt's legacy of advocacy for the underprivileged both nationally and abroad, President Harry Truman famously dubbed her "First Lady of the World."

Eleanor Roosevelt with the

Spanish version of the

Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

UNICEF Logo

 Margaret Sanger (1879-1966)

Every sexually-active person who doesn't think twice about parenthood can thank Margaret Sanger. As a nurse on New York City's impoverished Lower East Side, Sanger spent much of her time treating women who were injured during botched illegal abortions. As a result of this, she became convinced that contraceptive control was the primary avenue to freedom (and out of poverty) for women like her mother, who died young after giving birth to 11 children. Though she was born when contraception was illegal, by the time of her death, at 81, Sanger had founded the American Birth Control League — later known as Planned Parenthood — and masterminded the research and funding for the first FDA-approved oral contraceptive, Enovid.

Gloria Steinem (1934-Present)

When Hillary Clinton became the first viable female presidential candidate and the GOP countered with Sarah Palin, many women looked to Gloria Steinem to make sense of the dueling candidacies. Opining on the 2008 election, she offered her characteristic long-term vision: "Feminism has never been about getting a job for one woman. It's about making life more fair for women everywhere." It would be hard to find an American women's rights organization that does not owe its creation in part to Steinem. Though she had long been active in legislative issues concerned with gender equality, it was her 1970 testimony before the Senate in favor of the failed Equal Rights Amendment that brought national attention. But her work as a founder of Ms. magazine and the Women's Action Alliance has overshadowed her groundbreaking journalism: in 1963, seven years before Hunter S. Thompson was credited with creating "gonzo" journalism, Steinem went undercover as a Playboy bunny to report on the treatment of women at Playboy clubs for Show magazine.

Alice Walker and Gloria Steinem

on the cover of the Fall 2009 issue of Ms.

Martha Stewart (1941-Present)

Her popular cookbooks, Martha Stewart Living magazine and television show of the same name have led many to dub Martha Stewart, 69, the doyenne of domesticity. Yet Stewart's home and lifestyle empire had humble beginnings in Nutley, N.J., where her mother taught her how to sew, cook and craft at an early age. After a brief stint as a stockbroker, Stewart began a catering business with a friend. Her relationships with publishing clients soon led to a book deal. In 1997, Stewart channeled her various ventures into a single company, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, which went public in 1999 and made Stewart a billionaire in the process. Stewart faced scrutiny after insider-trading allegations in 2001, for which she would eventually serve a five-month prison stint in 2004. After her 2005 release, Stewart bounced back with a Kmart home-goods collaboration and a new TV show, The Apprentice: Martha Stewart. Her design sensibility is ubiquitous, having won her millions of dedicated followers and no shortage of detractors and parodies. Stewart has crafted decorations for both Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, while her company has expanded in recent years to launch Martha Stewart–stamped houses, floor coverings, wines and even video. Over the past two decades, Stewart's influence on the way people entertain, decorate, cook and design has been unparalleled.

Mother Teresa (1910-1997)

Her iconic white garb with its blue stripe trim is now equated with her ideals of service and charity among "the poorest of the poor." Born Agnes Bojaxhiu to Albanian parents living under the Ottoman Empire, the petite nun made her way to India in 1929, building her start-up missionary community of 13 members in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) into a global network of more than 4,000 sisters running orphanages and AIDS hospices. Sometimes criticized for lacking adequate medical training, not addressing poverty on a grander scale, actively opposing birth control and abortion and even cozying up to dictators, the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize nonetheless inspired countless volunteers to serve, and will wear her white habit all the way to Catholic sainthood.

Margaret Thatcher (1925-Present)

A woman with high standards and a short temper, Margaret Thatcher was not known as Britain's Iron Lady for nothing. After becoming both a chemist and a barrister and having two children, in 1959 Thatcher saw her long-held political ambitions realized when she became a Member of Parliament in the Conservative Party. Twenty years later, she found herself the Prime Minister. Serving from 1979 to 1990, she was Europe's first female Prime Minister and the only British Prime Minister to serve three consecutive terms, giving her the longest stay in office since 1827. In her 11 years at the top, she advocated for the privatization of state enterprises and industries and lower taxes, took on the trade unions and reduced social expenditures across the board. Thatcher worked, against a fair amount of resistance, to turn Britain into a more entrepreneurial, free-market economy, and is credited along with her conservative partner across the Atlantic, President Ronald Reagan, with helping hasten the demise of the Soviet Union.

 Oprah Winfrey (1954-Present)

Daytime television host, businesswoman and philanthropist, Oprah Winfrey overcame an impoverished childhood in rural Mississippi to build an eponymous media empire. The Oprah Winfrey Show, which has won multiple Emmy Awards and is broadcast in 145 countries, is the most successful daytime TV program in history. Winfrey's unparalleled influence on culture — often called "the Oprah effect" — has boosted lesser-known authors onto the New York Times best-sellers list while reviving America's interest in classic literature (John Steinbeck), turned obscure products into household brands (Spanx, Ciao Bella), and helped a whole battery of other personalities become full-fledged media powers of their own (Dr. Phil, Dr. Oz, Rachael Ray). Her 2008 endorsement of Barack Obama was worth 1 million votes to the then candidate in his primary battle with Hillary Clinton, according to one study. Oprah has also dabbled in acting, garnering Golden Globe and Oscar nominations for her role as Sofia in Steven Spielberg's The Color Purple. Beyond television, Winfrey is the co-author of several books and the publisher of O, the Oprah Magazine. After 25 years as the queen of daytime talk on network television, Winfrey, in partnership with Discovery Communications, is set to launch OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network, in January 2011. Godmother of the confessional media setting and unquestioned arbiter of self-help and spiritual trends, Oprah's influence on broader pop culture is peerless.

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Virginia Woolf (1882-1941)

Novelist and critic Virginia Woolf was a pioneer of modernist literature
whose work shed light on the oppressed position of women in early 20th
century social and political hierarchies. In works such as To the
Lighthouse, Orlando and her landmark feminist essay A Room of One's Own,
Woolf used her pen to explore the artistic, sexual and religious roles
that women held at this monumental time in women's history. An early
champion of stream-of-consciousness, Woolf was also a tireless, formal
innovator whose dedication to her craft has inspired generations of
authors. (The Hours, Michael Cunningham's 1998 Pulitzer Prize–winning
novel, is about three generations of women deeply affected by Woolf's
1923 novel Mrs. Dalloway.) Woolf suffered from extreme depression, and
although her mental illness ultimately led to her suicide, her legacy
lives on through the body of her creative works.