"Female generals" changing the contemporary world

1. German Chancellor Angela Merkel

“Queen of Europe”/ “Rose with Thorns” of Germany

Angela Dorothea Merkel was born on April 17, 1954, in Hamburg, a port city in northern Germany. She studied physics at the University of Leipzig from 1973 to 1978. A top student, she became fluent in Russian, which later helped her maintain a dialogue with President Vladimir Putin, who worked for the Soviet Union's KGB in Dresden, the capital of the East German state of Saxony, when the Berlin Wall fell in 1989.

Merkel was a physicist at the Central Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Academy of Sciences from 1986 to 1990.

In 1989, Ms. Merkel began participating in politics. In 1994, Ms. Merkel was appointed Minister of Environment and Nuclear Reactor Safety. In November 2005, Ms. Merkel became the first female and youngest Chancellor of Germany.

The general approaches politics like she does science: she looks at the situation carefully, weighs her options carefully, and then makes a decision. Today, she is not only the leader of the world's fourth-largest economy and the most powerful woman on the planet, but also a fulcrum in a time of global turmoil.

As the head of Europe's most powerful economy, Merkel has shown the way to solve regional and global crises, fighting for Germany's interests. Amid the wave of refugees pouring into Europe's borders, German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced that she would accept migrants and provide temporary accommodation for them in military training schools and other facilities across the country. Germany is the only country that welcomes immigrants when many other countries have closed their doors to them.

Her effective leadership has helped her assert her position and win the support of the people. In Germany, her nickname is "mutti" (mother), perhaps because the female chancellor exudes a calm, reliable air, never confused or shaken by the "childish antics" of those around her. But people should not mistake her "motherly" image for weakness. Up to now, after 4 terms leading Germany, she has become the longest-serving leader in Europe. It is worth mentioning that during her time leading the country, there has never been a "formidable" opponent within her party who wanted to compete for this position of the female chancellor...

The German Chancellor is known as the "Iron Lady" and topped the list of the 100 most powerful women in the world for the fourth consecutive year, as voted by Forbes.

-Qoute: “People often accuse me of not acting fast enough and letting bad situations drag on for too long. For me, it's more important to consider my options carefully. I spend all day thinking about options and seeing what happens next.”

2. British Prime Minister Theresa May

England's second "Iron Lady"

Theresa May was born on October 1, 1956 in Eastbourne, East Sussex, southeast England, the daughter of a clergyman. She studied geography at Oxford University.

After university, Mrs May worked and held a number of positions at the Bank of England and the Payment Services Association before being elected MP for Maidenhead in 1997. She became the first female chairwoman of the Conservative Party in 2002 when the party was in opposition under Prime Minister Tony Blair.

In May 2010, Mrs. May was appointed as the British Home Secretary. During her tenure, she made many contributions to ensuring border security, resolving immigration issues, combating terrorism, and preventing crime. During her tenure, she made many contributions to ensuring border security, resolving immigration issues, combating terrorism, and preventing crime... On July 13, Mrs. Theresa May was officially sworn in as the British Prime Minister.

In the race for officeBritish Prime Minister Theresa May is one of the supporters of Britain remaining in the European Union (EU). However, she claims to be a bridge between the Euroskeptics and the progressive wing of the party when leading Britain after Brexit. In the context of the UK being deeply divided after the Brexit referendum (Britain leaving the EU), Theresa May is expected to be the only person capable of uniting the conflicting factions within the Conservative Party. At the same time, with her experience and strong political will, she will be the one to steer Britain to face the challenges in the post-Brexit period.

Recently, Mrs. May has received special attention from the British public for her proposal called “Snoopers' Charter”, part of a draft law that allows the police and public agencies to monitor people's personal information data to deal with terrorists in the spirit of ensuring human rights and United Nations privacy laws.

Mrs. Theresa May has always been highly appreciated, trusted by Conservative Party members and created the image of a tough politician on many security and social issues.

The Financial Times has described her as a liberal conservative and compared her to German Chancellor Angela Merkel as role models for female politicians with a tough working style.

-Qoute: “Whatever job I undertake, I always do my best. I devote myself to it and try to do it the best I can."

3. Co-Chair of the Bill & Melina Gates Foundation - Ms. Melina Gates

The world's most influential social activist

Melina Gates became valedictorian of Ursuline Academy of Dallas. She earned a BA in Computer Science and Economics from Duke University, and an MBA from Duke's Fuqua School of Business in just five years. She was a member of Beta Rho, the fraternity of Kappa Alpha Theta Sorority at Duke University.

Shortly after graduating, Gates was hired by Microsoft. During her time there, she served as a project manager for Microsoft Bob, Microsoft Encarta, and Expedia.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation was founded in 1993, when she and her husband Bill Gates made their first trip to Africa. There, they decided to do something about the scene they saw. Over the past 15 years, she has become co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation – a global private philanthropic organization with an endowment of up to $40 billion, with the aim of improving health care and reducing poverty, increasing educational opportunities and access to advanced information technology.

Melinda Gates has also been generous to her alma mater. In 2007, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation gave Ursuline $7 million to build the Family Science, Math, and Technology Center—a 70,000-square-foot LEED-certified lab.

Melina Gates shares an estimated fortune of nearly $90 billion with her husband and became one of the world's most prolific social activists as co-chair of the Bill & Melina Gates Foundation, which she ran for its first six years.

In addition to her initiatives in education and health care for couples, Melina Gates is also concerned with women’s issues around the world. First on her agenda is expanding the availability of contraception and raising awareness of the concept of time poverty—the notion that the hours and days of unpaid work women do as household chores “rob women of their potential.”

In 2016, Melina Gates was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States, by President Obama for her work on health care and poverty in the United States and abroad.

- Qoute: Gates describes the legacy she hopes to leave: “On the day I die, I want people to think that I was a great mother, a great family member, and a great friend. I care about those things more than anything else.”

4. Facebook COO - Sheryl Sandberg

The real owner of the Facebook empire

A graduate of Harvard University, he served as the US Chief of Staff under President Clinton, a management consultant at McKinsey & Company, and an economist at the World Bank.

In December 2007, she resigned from her position as vice president of global online sales and operations at Google, which had more than 4,000 employees under her. Sheryl Sandberg, 38 years old, with a lot of experience, agreed to join hands with Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, a social network that was then less than three years old and had only 130 employees.

In February 2008, Zuckerberg concluded that Sandberg would be the person to hold the position of COO of this company. Sandberg's ability is undeniable. In 2012, Sandberg officially became the 8th member, and the first female member of Facebook's board of directors.

Sandberg says she chose Facebook because it is a company driven by instinct and human relationships. That’s a key point that Google doesn’t have. At Google, people and customers interact only through computers. People ask questions and computers answer. At Facebook, people interact directly.

Sheryl Sandberg's COO role is very broad, including departments such as sales, marketing, business development, human resources, social policy and communications. She is the one who helped direct Facebook to become a huge profitable social network thanks to advertising instead of just specializing in creating communication channels as before.

Sheryl Sandberg's net worth is currently valued by Forbes at around $1.58 billion.

-Qoute: “So ask yourself: What would I do if I weren't afraid? And then do it.” (Classic quote from Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead. Book written by Sheryl Sandberg, published 2013)

5. General Motors CEO - Mary Barra

The powerful woman in the car industry

GrandmaMaryBarra has worked at General Motors (GM) for the past 33 years. Instead of going to college, Mary went to GM. To pay for her tuition, Mary worked for the company every six months. At age 18, after graduating with a degree in electrical engineering, Mary began working full-time as a senior engineer at GM’s Pontiac Fiero plant.

Before being appointed CEO in January 2014, Ms.MaryBarra is vice president of global supply chain, purchasing and product development, and is responsible for restructuring Opel, simplifying the product line with global platforms.

It’s hard to imagine that less than three months after taking over as CEO of General Motors Co. (GM), Mary Barra would face one of the biggest challenges of her career: GM was in the midst of a recall crisis. Since Mary officially took over on January 15, GM’s stock price has fallen about 14%.

However, Mary Barra showed her ability to steer GM through the storm. Her words were always backed by actions. She fired 15 key people responsible for the scandal, reorganized GM's litigation practices, and created a "Speaking Up for Safety" program for its employees. In addition to publicly apologizing, Mary Barra also visited the families of the victims and established a compensation fund for them before any liability was determined.

More than a year after the crisis, people still remember the image of Mary Barra with the two words “change”. Change the mistakes, the shortcomings and the “culture of silence” at GM.

Mary's work ethic and strict motherhood allowed her to run GM's product development with a disciplined style. She overhauled the organizational structure GM had used for its new vehicle research and development programs since 1996, cutting costs and giving the chief engineer ultimate responsibility, while continuing to strengthen GM's global platforms.

Her official assumption of the top position of the largest auto corporation in the US and the second largest in the world is considered a turning point in the development history of the auto industry./.