Top 10 most powerful women

Number 10

Ellen DeGeneres (52)

Title: Talk show host

Comediene DeGeneres is a jack of all trades.  Best known these days as the host of the Ellen DeGeneres Show, she has also been a judge on American Idol, she's the face for Cover Girl and Vitaminwater Zero,  and is an active gay-rights supporter. The talk show host declared her sexual orientation 1997 and married actress Portia de Rossi in 2008. Her talk show is currently in its eighth season.

Number 9

Beyonce Knowles (29)

Title: Singer, fashion designer

American singer Beyonce's ever-expanding business empire has earned her a whopping $80-million in 2009. The singer can count 118 million records, seven films, 16 Grammy awards and modelling contracts with L'Oréal and Coty to her name. She has millions of fans the world over, including US first lady Michelle Obama.

Number 8

Gail Kelly (54)

Title: Chief Executive, Westpac

South African-born Kelly is the head of Australia's second-largest bank, Westpac. With assets of around $551-billion and $15.9-billion in revenue, Westpac's CEO is considered the country's most influential businesswoman. Kelly obtained her BA degree from the University of Cape Town and completed her MBA in 1986 while pregnant with her eldest daughter. Kelly and her husband moved to Sydney, Australia, where she took up the position as General Manager of Strategic Marketing in the Commonwealth Bank in October 1997. In August 2008, Forbes ranked her the 11th most powerful woman in the world and she was ranked 18th in 2009.

Number 7

Lady Gaga (24)

Title: Singer and performance artist

Lady Gaga - or Stefanie Germanotta - is a New York University-dropout who has taken the pop world by storm. Her latest album, The Fame Monster, has put her on par with other female stars Beyoncé, Rihanna, and Mariah Carey  with six No. 1 Billboard hits. She has single-handedly reinvigorated pop music and pop culture while her eccentric fashion sense has grabbed the attention of millions. She is also a vocal supporter of gay rights.

Number 6

Indra Nooyi (54)

Title: Chief Executive, PepsiCo

Indian-born and mother of two, Nooyi received her Post Graduate Diploma in Management (MBA) from Indian Institute of Management Calcutta in 1976 before moving to the US in 1978 to attend Yale School of Management. In 2007 she became the fifth CEO in PepsiCo's 44-year history and in 2009 her total compensation package amounted to $10.6-million.

Number 5

Hillary Clinton (62)

Title: US Secretary of State

Former first lady and US senator, Clinton entered the political arena long before running for the Democrats' presidential candidate in 2008. Now an active campaigner for victims of rape in Congo and of flooding in Pakistan and the millions of mothers exposed to dangerous cook stoves, Clinton has been compared to the Iron Lady, former British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher.

Number 4

Angela Merkel (56)

Title: German Chancellor

Educated in Templin and at the University of Leipzig, where she studied physics from 1973 to 1978, Merkel has topped Forbes' list of 'Most Powerful Women' in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009. She was awarded a doctorate for her thesis on quantum chemistry while working as a researcher in the early 1990s. She assumed office in November 2005 and in 2007 she became only the second woman to chair the G8 summit after Margaret Thatcher.

Number 3

Oprah Winfrey (56)

Title: Talk show host and media mogul

The world's most successful black woman, Winfrey will be celebrating 25 years in the entertainment industry in December 2010. The talk show queen announced that she will air her final show on 9 September 2011. But what's next for the media mogul? She will be launching OWN, the Oprah Winfrey Network, a joint venture of Discovery Channel and her own Harpo Productions, in January 2012. Winfrey opened the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy School for Girls in South Africa in January 2007.

Number 2

Irene Rosenfeld (57)

Title: Chief Executive, Kraft Foods

Rosenfeld earned her stripes in the business world after going to war with investment guru Warren Buffet. In 2009 Rosenfeld announced plans to acquire British candymaker Cadbury. Buffett, whose Berkshire Hathaway owned 9.4 percent of Kraft, voted against the deal, threatening to sell off his Kraft shares. Rosenfeld powered ahead with the plans and Buffett sold 33.1 million of his Kraft shares. Who was right? Kraft's second-quarter revenues rose 25.3 percent to $12.3-billion, boosted largely by Cadbury's business in Europe and in developing markets.

Number one

Michelle Obama (46)

Title: First Lady

The First Lady of style, Obama is a qualified advocate having obtained her LLM from Harvard University. But unlike Hillary Clinton, who championed health care reform while her husband was president, Obama has stayed away from hard policy. In response to her Let's Move! campaign against childhood obesity, companies like Coca-Cola, Kellogg and General Mills have pledged to reduce the calorie content of their foods by 2012.