Washington

FORTUNE Magazine released its third annual list of the World's Greatest Leaders on Thursday, and for the first time, the list of 50 CEOs, heads of state, activists and other leaders is nearly half women - there are 23 this year, compared with 15 last year and 19 in 2014.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is No 2 on the annual ranking, followed by Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the National League for Democracy in Myanmar. Three other women round out the top 10, including Christiana Figueres, the executive secretary for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (No 7), US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (No 9) and Sheikh Hasina, the Prime Minister of Bangladesh (No 10).