Methodology for Most Powerful Women (2024)

Fortune published its first Most Powerful Women list in 1998 to recognize the women leading some of the planet’s biggest companies in a business world still dominated by men. That remains its purpose today. The list’s size and geographic breadth have evolved over its history. The 2024 list adopts the format first used in 2023: a global list of 100 women, which reflects the nature of business today and the scope of most executives’ jobs. 

The MPW list is aligned with the rest of Fortune’s Most Powerful Women vertical: Fortune’s annual Most Powerful Women Summit and Fortune’s daily Broadsheet newsletter, which covers women leaders. 

We solicit nominations for the MPW list every year in the Broadsheet newsletter (there is no fee to submit a nomination), but a nomination is not required to make the list. Compiling and ranking the MPW list is an editorial endeavor; the team behind it takes the following five criteria into account:

1. The size of an executive’s business

We consider how much revenue the exec oversees, the size of her workforce, and the geographic reach of her remit. Fortune considers only executives who have an active role at for-profit companies; in recent years, most executives who’ve made the list oversee at least $1 billion in revenue.

2. The health of an executive’s business

We consider how an exec’s business is performing; if it’s thriving under her leadership (generating revenue and profit growth, innovating, hiring workers, entering new markets) or if it’s struggling (recording losses, laying off employees, locked in troublesome legal battles). 

3. The executive’s career trajectory

We consider if the exec has reached her full potential or if there’s still runway ahead of her. 

4. The executive’s influence outside her organization

We consider how much sway an exec has in the world beyond her company; if she’s engaged in public discourse, authoring books, or sitting on influential boards. 

5. How the executive wields her power 

We consider how the exec is using her public platform and considerable resources; if she is taking aim at societal harms, supporting her workforce, or bettering the community around her. 

Head writers
Claire Zillman and Emma Hinchliffe

Contributors
Alicia Adamczyk, Nina Ajemian, Ellie Austin, Jenn Brice, Emma Burleigh, Sheryl Estrada, Lionel Lim, Orianna Rosa Royle, Indrani Sen, Phil Wahba, Vivienne Walt