by Patricia Sellers
Women face a narrower band of acceptable behavior than men do. Women can be powerful. Women can be likeable. Being both is difficult to do.
Last week, I was in California, the ultimate proving ground for that theory. California is the place, after all, where three well-known women -- former Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) CEO Carly Fiorina, former eBay (EBAY) CEO Meg Whitman, and Rep. Nancy Pelosi -- have learned that MORE
Patricia Sellers - Jan 31, 2011 1:25 PM ET
by Patricia Sellers
eBay CEO John Donahue
For a lot of people, their job is their life and their life is their job.
John and Eileen Donahoe decided early on that they didn't want to live that way. One night when he was 23 and already an up-and-comer at consulting giant Bain in Boston, he wrote this message to his fiancé on a Shawmut Bank slip over dinner: "I will not live MORE
Patricia Sellers - Jan 26, 2011 11:42 AM ET
Hewlett-Packard's (HPQ) announcement that it is adding three women to its board of directors is a milestone -- apparently the first instance of a company naming three women in one day.
The female trifecta includes former eBay (EBAY) CEO Meg Whitman, former Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) CEO Pat Russo and current chief of AXA Private Equity Dominique Senequier -- all of whom have been on Fortune's annual list of Most Powerful Women in MORE
Patricia Sellers - Jan 21, 2011 4:28 PM ET
by Patricia Sellers
Just have to share...this New York Times story about the top official of the Russian Orthodox Church who proposes to dictate the way women dress in public places.
Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin's beef is scantily-clad women and too-casually-dressed men as well. But he reserves his choicest words for women who dress provocatively because this leads to "short-term marriages, which are immediately followed by ratlike divorces, to the destruction of children's MORE
Patricia Sellers - Jan 19, 2011 3:47 PM ET
by Patricia Sellers
Rep. Gabrielle Giffords touches us and rivets us with her amazing progress since the tragic Tucson shooting 10 days ago.
This Saturday, the New York Times ran a profile of the Congresswoman that captured a spirit and resilience that has shaped her entire life and career. The piece mentioned a speech that Giffords gave to the 2009 graduating class at Scripps College, her alma mater. I read the speech. MORE
Patricia Sellers - Jan 18, 2011 3:56 PM ET
by Patricia Sellers
This past week brought the tragedy in Tucson, President Obama's soaring sermon about national unity on Wednesday night, and then the news that a visit from a clutch of her Congresswomen friends prompted Rep. Gabrielle Giffords to open her eyes for the first time.
This seems an appropriate time to share another demonstration of unity. Though this one is taking place half a world away.
After a suicide bomb outside MORE
Patricia Sellers - Jan 14, 2011 11:52 AM ET
by Patricia Sellers
Of three movies that I saw this weekend (a record cine-immersion for me), True Grit was disappointing, The Fighter was thrilling, and The King's Speech was inspiring -- my favorite of the bunch.
The King's Speech is about King George VI, Queen Elizabeth's father, and his determination to cure his paralyzing stammer at a moment when England is at the brink of war and in desperate need of inspiration. MORE
Patricia Sellers - Jan 10, 2011 1:13 PM ET
by Patricia Sellers
Did you hear that Lady Gaga was the magazine world's No. 1 hit-maker in 2010? So says the Audit Bureau of Circulations, which found that the provocative performer sold more magazine covers last year than any other celebrity.
That got me thinking...Lady Gaga shares a trait with two other powerful women who are making news this week: Oprah Winfrey and Cathie Black, the new chancellor of New York City's MORE
Patricia Sellers - Jan 5, 2011 11:42 AM ET
by Patricia Sellers
Here we are in 2011, and how odd is it that only a dozen Fortune 500 companies have female CEOs?
This despite plenty of evidence that placing women in key positions pays off for investors.
Maybe it's coincidental -- at least it's worth noting -- that two of the Dow 30 companies that delivered the best stock-market gains in 2010 are run by women.
One is Dupont (DD), whose CEO, Ellen MORE
Patricia Sellers - Jan 4, 2011 11:07 AM ET
by Patricia Sellers
Oprah Winfrey arrived on cable this weekend at long last. And I do mean long.
When I interviewed Oprah in her Chicago office a few months ago, she pulled a piece of paper out of her desk drawer. It was a note, scrawled in pencil, that Stedman Graham, her boyfriend, wrote to her when they were on vacation together in April 1992. Oprah had never shared the note with MORE
Patricia Sellers - Jan 3, 2011 12:48 PM ET
For the latest on the most influential women in business, philanthropy, government, and the arts, like us on Facebook. 
In a funny and candid interview, Google VP Marissa Mayer explains how she got to the top. Watch
Xerox CEO Ursula Burns shares how she once accepted a job with Dell but ended up staying with Xerox. Watch
Pattie Sellers has written some of Fortune's most talked-about cover stories, including "Oprah's Next Act," "Can Meg Whitman Save California?" "The $100 Billion Woman" (Melinda Gates), "MySpace Cowboys," Martha Stewart ("I cannot be destroyed"), Ted Turner ("Gone with the Wind") and Oprah Winfrey ("Oprah Inc."). Since its launch in 1998, Pattie has helped oversee Fortune's "Most Powerful Women" cover package.
A specialist at dissecting larger-than-life personalities, she has also profiled former U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, Morgan Stanley chairman John Mack, and countless CEOs.
Pattie co-chairs the annual Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit, the preeminent gathering of women leaders in business, philanthropy, government, academia, and the arts. She started at Fortune in 1984, covering the big brand companies.
In Pattie's blog, Postcards, she provides insight into the lives of super-achievers through commentary, career advice, and Guest Posts by CEOs and other leaders.
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Fortune Most Powerful Women
Sheryl Sandberg:
Gina Bianchini
