Forbes's list of 100 powerful women seems to confuse marriage with achievement

 Article from the Sydney Morning Herald by Grace Dent.

All glossy magazine Top 100 editions (albums, gigs, celebrities) are designed to prod buttons. As the alert, fully functioning "360-degree media" cognisant lump that I am, I know this. Yet when respected business magazine Forbes released a tally of The World's Most Powerful Women with Michelle Obama as the winner, my gums began to retract.

Clearly, Forbes made many curious decisions along the way. Lady Gaga, for example, sat 11 places above Sonia Sotomayor, America's first Hispanic supreme court judge. Sotomayor spent 2010 transforming judicial thought on the "right to remain silent", while Gaga was probably dancing about a stadium - nips out and wearing backless chaps made of tampons - hooting: "Woo! Leetle monsterz. Female empowerment!" This sort of irony is par for the course in list-land.

But Michelle Obama as number one - sorry? Apparently, she beats every chairwoman of the board, political leader and high-rolling one-woman entertainment conglomerate on the planet for her role of being "within pillow-talk range of her husband the president".

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"Michelle is a forceful advocate of school nutritional standards," said the blurb beneath her name, typed in, clearly, by some poor bugger who then emailed the editorial team saying: "What: Michelle Obama number one? Isn't Indra Nooyi, the chief executive of PepsiCo making more of an impact on the world? Come on, WTF?"

Don't get me wrong. I like Michelle Obama. She seems a charming, fragrant human being who "does hugs", etc. If people want to festoon trophies upon her for being "caring", "motherly" or having attractively toned arms in designer dresses, be my guest. But powerful . . . why?

Does Forbes think Michelle is more powerful than Janet Napolitano, head of US homeland security, because she gets to go to bed with Barack, while poor Janet just gets to protect the entire country? Apparently, Michelle Obama is also more powerful than German chancellor Angela Merkel - but then, sad sap Angela is only lobbying for a non-permanent seat on the UN council, while Michelle . . . well, Michelle has the real power. The president plainly couldn't get up in the morning if he didn't have her sunshine smile and the promise of her unconditional love. Yes, I feel sick, too.

It is, of course, a backwards notion that being on the arm of a powerful man raises a woman's stock more than her own personal achievement ever could, but in Britain we're just as bad. We love a "wife and girlfriend", and no serious Woman of the Year awards - organised by women themselves, I might add - is complete without Coleen Rooney, Abigail Clancy or Danielle Lineker clomping up the red carpet to honour their nominations for most inspirational being. Oh pipe down, you female transorbital neuroendoscopy specialists at the back, Coleen has a children's book deal and will almost certainly help choose the colour of the cover.

And so, we give the message to young girls that it's better to be an accoutrement to a man with a skill, than actually to be skilful. I don't have a daughter, so I don't know how you tackle the question: "But Mummy, why hasn't Coleen split up with Wayne if the paper thinks he likes to go to bed with other girls?" But Aunty Grace's answer would be: "Well, Coleen's entire media value comes from being connected to him, so she probably knows that if she leaves him she'll be absolutely shafted."

I do, however, think there's a sneakier, misogynistic message at play by Forbes when it places Michelle Obama above Nancy Pelosi, the first female speaker of the US House of Representatives (making her, when elected in 2007, the highest-ranking woman in US political history). They're clearly implying that women with whom men are smitten can have a skulduggerous and manipulative influence.

Oh yes, Michelle may look harmless in her silk Maria Pinto dress with her strong views on lunchbox nutrition - but behind closed doors, Forbes is saying, she could be Lady Macbeth, whispering in Barack's ear of plunder and the means whereby he may soonest accomplish it. Just one word whispered after she has accidentally sat on the remote control and caught 10 minutes of Al Jazeera, and America will be in Iran, pulling down statues as quick as you can say: "Out, damned spot."

Back in the real world, I have no power over anything my husband decides in his business. I'm here for him to talk to, of course, as I'm sure Michelle is for Barack. But with regard to the outcome, I have absolutely no power. Why would I? I don't work there.

Anyway, if Forbes's reasoning is to be believed, then the most powerful woman in the world is actually Liu Yongqing, wife of Hu Jintao, paramount leader of the People's Republic of China. But they were never going to make her number one and put her on any magazine covers. She hasn't even got nice arms.