FORTUNE OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2021 59THERE’S STILL MUCH TO BE UNTANGLED about all the ways, big and
small, in which the pandemic has remade our lives. But here’s what
we do know: The past 18 months have radically altered the course of
women’s careers. This year’s Most Powerful Women ranking illus-
trates that even those at the top of corporate America aren’t immune—an idea
that we explore in depth in this issue (page 94). Five of the women in our top 10
became CEOs during the pandemic, thrown into the fire of leading in a period
of extreme uncertainty. That includes our new No. 1, Karen Lynch, who took the
helm of CVS Health in February. Rosalind Brewer became CEO of Walgreens
Boots Alliance in March (see The Conversation on page 12) and Thasunda
Brown Duckett moved into the corner office at TIAA in May—massive new jobs
that make them two of the four Black women to ever run Fortune 500 compa-
nies. For the first time, we have two women sharing a job and therefore a spot on
the list: Marianne Lake and Jennifer Piepszak of JPMorgan Chase are consid-
ered strong candidates to someday run the banking giant. Our 2021 ranking also
includes five newcomers, including Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman and Match
CEO Shar Dubey, who have flexed their power to tackle issues like diversity in
the boardroom and Texas’s regressive new abortion law.
If there’s one thing we can learn from the women in these pages, it’s that a
crisis is a terrible thing to waste.WRITTEN BY
Kristen Bellstrom
Emma Hinchliffe
Beth Kowitt
Megan Leonhardt
Michal Lev-Ram
Jessica Mathews
Sy Mukherjee
Lucinda Shen
Anne Sraders
Shawn Tully
Jonathan Vanian
Phil Wahba
Claire Zillman
HEADCOUNT BY INDUSTRY
TECH FINANCE RETAIL HEALTH CARE DEFENSE ENTERTAINMENT TRANSPORTATION FOOD PROFESSIONAL SERVICES TELECOM ENERGY INSURANCE MANUFACTURING SHIPPING11 10 7 4 3 3 3 2 2 2 1 1 1 1