Brasília – The Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff has been listed for the second year back-to-back as the world’s third most powerful woman in the ranking of American magazine Forbes, released this Wednesday (22nd). Rousseff is outranked only by the German prime-minister Angela Merkel and the United States secretary of state Hillary Clinton.
The Brazilian president is on the cover of Forbes and profiled in a lengthy report as a leader who values entrepreneurship and has betted on it as a tool for improving economic and social indices during her term in office, which now spans nearly two years.
“No other BRIC (a group of emerging countries comprising Brazil, Russia, India and China) balances democracy and widespread wealth nearly as well. Half of Brazil’s population now occupies the middle class,” the text claims.
The article recounts Rousseff’s ´political life and the years during which the president was arrested by the military regime, of which she emerged a more “pragmatic” person, according to the text.
The magazine mentions the president’s high popularity among Brazilians, but points out the challenges facing her, including the risk of inflation and corruption, which has brought down six ministers in her office.
In addition to Rousseff, two other Brazilian women are ranked among the world’s 100 most powerful: the Petrobras president Graça Foster, at 20th, and the model Gisele Bündchen, at 82nd.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
