Michelle Obama Named World's Most Powerful Woman

U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama topped this year's list of the World's 100 Most Powerful Women by Forbes magazine released on Wednesday.

"A fashion icon and an athletic mother of two, [Obama] is Jackie Kennedy with a law degree from Harvard and street sense from Chicago's South Side," Forbes said, adding that she has "given a new generation of girls and women around the world a role model."

With Obama's jump to No. 1 from 40th last year, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who topped the list for four consecutive years, stepped down to fourth place.

Irene Rosenfeld, CEO of Kraft Foods, came in second. The second-highest paid woman in the U.S., Rosenfeld raised the company's revenue by 25.3 percent in the second quarter with the acquisition of British candymaker Cadbury.

From left, Michelle Obama, Irene Rosenfeld and Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Winfrey, whose talk show will air its final show in September next year after 25 years of great success, took third place. Her show "has launched multiple careers, spawned countless bestsellers and helped millions of women feel that someone, at last, understands them," the magazine wrote.