Women of Influence 2026
Influence across sectors that share no common metric, assessed against a common standard.
Methodology
Selection uses the same criteria as our other lists: the capacity to affect outcomes, the scale of what is affected, durability, and a genuine New York connection.
Because sectors have incompatible units — capital, headcount, patients, students, audience — we apply a common set of questions rather than a common metric, and answer them within the context of each field.
We distinguish between the authority a role confers and the influence a person exercises, and we include influence that is not attached to a title where we can evidence it.
We are more likely to identify influence in sectors that generate documentation, and our lists under-represent fields that generate less public record. We state that rather than claiming a completeness we do not have.
No place is available for purchase, and selection has no commercial input.
We publish the criteria before the list.
The methodology above is the standard this list will be held to. Entries name real people, and every claim in one is checked against a source we can point to, so they are published when that work is done rather than to fill a page. Our reasoning is set out in the Power List section, including what rankings get wrong and how to be considered.