Queen extends her reign to top list of most powerful women in Britain
Home Secretary Theresa May comes second in first table to assess Britain's most powerful females
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Your support makes all the difference.She's been tipped as a future Tory leader – and today Theresa May's rise to prominence is confirmed with the news that she has been voted the most powerful woman in Britain after the Queen.
The Home Secretary, whose political star has soared since her popular decision to block the extradition of autistic hacker Gary McKinnon, came out ahead of a host of leading female business figures and judges in the list compiled by BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour.
While the list is – perhaps inevitably – headed by the woman who has spent 60 years on the throne, there is no place in the top 100 for the Duchess of Cambridge. And the ranking also hints at the lack of racial equality among the country's most powerful women with every member of the top 20 being white. Kids Company founder Camila Batmanghelidjh and Iraqi-born architect Zaha Hadid are among the few ethnic-minority women on the list.
Among the women who made the top 20 is third-placed Santander chief executive Ana Botin, who ran an internet start-up business before joining the bank. She is joined by media tycoon Rupert Murdoch's daughter Elisabeth, the chairman of television company Shine Limited, who has thus far come through the scandal surrounding other members of her family relatively unscathed and is ranked fifth.
The inaugural Woman's Hour Power List was compiled by a panel of judges including author and journalist Eve Pollard, Conservative MP Priti Patel, television presenter and writer Dawn O'Porter, Labour peer Oona King, novelist Val McDermid, and former Woman's Hour editor Jill Burridge.
Eve Pollard, the panel's chair, said the judges set out to include women who wield power, rather than simply influence, hence the decision to exclude Kate Middleton.
"Inevitably not everyone will agree with the 100 we have chosen. There are some omissions. For example, we had long debates about the Duchess of Cambridge. Is she influential? Hugely. Is she powerful? Not yet," she said.
"What this list does is shine a light on those sectors where too few women are getting to the top, like politics, FTSE companies, the military and journalism. Our legacy, we hope, is that this list might change that."
Woman's Hour power list: the top 20
1. Her Majesty The Queen
2. Rt Hon Theresa May MP (Home Secretary), pictured
3. Ana Botín (CEO, Santander UK)
4. Baroness Brenda Hale of Richmond (Supreme Court Judge)
5. Elisabeth Murdoch (Chairman, Shine Group)
6. Professor Dame Sally Davies (Chief Medical Officer)
7. Justine Roberts & Carrie Longton (Co-founders, Mumsnet)
8. Lady Justice Hallett (Appeal Court Judge)
9. Angela Ahrendts (CEO, Burberry)
10. Dame Gail Rebuck (Chairman and CEO, The Random House Group)
11. Frances O'Grady (General Secretary, TUC)
12. Moya Greene (Chief Executive, Royal Mail)
13. J K Rowling (author and philanthropist)
14. Rt Hon Harriet Harman MP (Deputy Leader, Labour Party)
15. Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell (President & Vice-Chancellor, University of Manchester)
16. Rosemary Squire (co-founder and co-Chief Executive, Ambassador Theatre Group)
17. Rt Hon Maria Miller MP (Secretary of State for Culture, Media & Sport)
18. Sara Thornton (Chief Constable, Thames Valley Police)
19. Ann Glover (Chief Scientific Adviser to the European Commission)
20. Nicola Sturgeon MSP (Deputy First Minister of Scotland)
Numbers 21 to 100 are listed alphabetically, by first name
Adele Adkins
Alexandra Shulman
Alison Cooper
Alison Nimmo CBE
Amanda Sourry
Ann Cairns
Pofessor Dame Ann Dowling
Lady Barbara Judge
Camila Batmanghelijh
Carol Ann Duffy CBE
Professor Dame Carol Black
Carolyn McCall OBE
Baroness Catherine Ashton
Chrissie Rucker MBE
Cilla Snowball CBE
Clare Balding
Clare Foges
Clare Gerada MBE
Colette Bowe
Cressida Dick QPM
Dawn French
Denise Coates CBE
Dido Harding
Eileen Gallagher OBE
Harriet Green OBE
Heather Rabbatts CBE
Dame Helen Alexander
Helen Boaden
Lady Helen Hamlyn
Helena Morrissey CBE
Jan Hall OBE
Dame Janet Smith
Jasmine Whitbread
Jayne-Anne Gadhia
Joanna Lumley OBE
Joanna Shields
Professor Dame Jocelyn Bell-Burnell
Jude Kelly OBE
Judith McKenna
Dame Julie Moore
Rt Hon Justine Greening MP
Kanya King MBE
Karren Brady
Kath Mainland
Liz Bingham
Reverend Lorna Hood
Louise Casey
Lucy Heller
Rt Hon Margaret Hodge MP
Marisa Drew
Martha Lane Fox CBE
The Rt Hon Lady Justice Arden
Mary Curnock Cook OBE
Dame Mary Perkins
Natalie Massenet
Nicola Shindler
Pinky Lilani OBE
Rachel Whetstone
Ruby McGregor Smith CBE
Sarah Millican
Shami Chakrabarti CBE
Sigrid Rausing
Siobhan Reddy
Sophie Turner Laing
Stella McCartney
Dame Stephanie 'Steve' Shirley
Professor Sue Bailey
Professor Sue Black OBE
Baroness Sue Campbell
Dame Sue Ion
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