Which women have the biggest impact on our economy, society, politics and culture? Who has the ability to inspire change as a role model or a thinker? Does power boil down to having the money to make things happen? And has new technology changed what it is to be powerful?
These are just a few of the questions BBC Radio 4's 'Women's Hour' is asking, as they compile a list of the 100 most powerful women in the UK at the start of 2013.
This isn't a Power List which is created by those in power, for those in power, as we, the public, can head over the Radio 4 website and nominate the women who we deem to have been doing the most moving, shaking and culture-shaping this year. There are, of course, restrictions on who you can nominate – they must be be or have been a UK resident or UK national, and they must be alive.
How about a few of the movers and groovers from the world of comedy? There's Lucy Lumsden, who in 2009 left her post as the BBC’s controller of comedy commissioning to become Sky’s first ever head of comedy; Miranda Hart, current Queen of Comedy; Lauren Laverne, who started her career in riot-girl band Kenickie and now straddles the media world with a show on BBC radio 6, a column in the Guardian and presented Channel Four's satirical news show 10 c'clock Live; Jennifer Saunders, who, on top of creating the iconic 'Ab Fab' and surviving breast cancer,has just written the Spice Girls musical, Viva Forever! And about a hundred more women just in the comedy business who we've spent the past hour naming, but too many to list here!
So, who's the most powerful woman you know? What do you think constitutes power nowadays? Let us know who you'd nominate for the Power List in the comments!
You can nominate your favoured powerful women at the BBC Radio 4 website HERE.
You can also submit suggestions on Twitter using the hashtag: #whpowerlist
Read Funny Women founder Lynne Parker's thoughts on women in power at Huffington Post HERE.
Pictured top to bottom: Lauren Laverne, Lucy Lumsden
