The 50 Most Powerful Moms of 2015

Working Mother

Vivian Manning-
 

We think all moms are powerful. That being said, this year's list of Most Powerful Moms features 50 remarkable women whose influence is felt on a daily basis via their singular talent, hard work and intellectual capital—not to mention courage, strength, love of family and, importantly, their passion to make the world a better place. These moms have so many qualities we admire—and then some!

 Beyoncé 

Musician/Actress/Producer

Children: Daughter, Blue Ivy, 3
According to Forbes, Queen Bey became the top earning woman in the music business last year by doubling what she made in 2013 to the tune of $115 million, boosted by endorsement deals with Pepsi and H&M. But beyond being a mega-talent working mom, she’s also an artist who carves out her own way and stays on top by keeping everyone on their toes. Case in point: Instead of performing one of her hits, she chose to make a statement at the 2015 Grammys by belting out a gospel hymn in support of black men. To celebrate the one-year anniversary of her Beyoncé album in December, she released a surprise black-and-white video tribute, “Yours and Mine,” extolling her feminism, as well as the joy she’s found in motherhood and marriage. In it, she speaks of the power of her inspiration—her family: “One thing that’s for sure, the love I have for music, for my husband, for my child is something that will last far beyond my life.”

Nancy Dubuc
President and CEO, A+E Networks
Children: Two
Just the third president and CEO in A+E’s 30-year history, Nancy has proven herself a bonafide hit-maker by taking risks. The lifelong TV fan heads brands like the History channel, A+E networks, Lifetime and LMN, and her networks had 11 of the top 50 shows in total viewers last year with hits like Ice Road Truckers, Hatfield’s & McCoy’s, Vikings, Pawn Stars and Dance Moms. Entertaining 330 million–plus viewers and 500 million digital users in more than 200 territories worldwide, Nancy credits her success to following her gut. She's got a slew of Emmy awards and nominations under her belt and has been named one of Fortune’s 50 Most Powerful Women in Business and annually one of the Top Five Most Powerful on The Hollywood Reporter Power 100 Top Women in Entertainment list. Last year, she broadened the A+E scope even further by overseeing the acquisition of a 10 percent stake in Vice Media. About to present the opening keynote at the 36th Banff World Media Festival next month, Nancy told the New York Times: “The drug of success is great but it’s fleeting. The exercise and nutrition that you have to do to get the drug of success is failure.”

Angelina Jolie 

Actress/Producer/Writer/Director/Activist/Ambassador

Children: Maddox, 13, Pax, 11, Zahara, 10, Shiloh, 8, Knox and Vivienne, 6
It's no surprise that Angelina makes our list, what with six kids and both longterm and current acclaim as actor, writer, producer, director and UN Ambassador with a relentless drive to better the world. This past year she earned praise for her work as director and producer of Unbroken and also penned a much-shared New York Times essay about her decision to remove her breasts (and eventually ovaries and fallopian tubes), raising awareness about how a simple genetic mutation test can empower women's health choices. Sure, she can bring her family to work—currently directing and co-starring with dashing hubby Brad Pitt in the upcoming film By the Sea—but Angelina knows full well how fortunate she is to do so. She told the New York Daily News: “I actually feel that women in my position, when we have all at our disposal to help us, shouldn’t complain. Consider all the people who really struggle and don’t have the financial means, don’t have the support, and many people are single raising children. That’s hard.”

• 
  

  Kim Kardashian 

  Reality Star/Retail Mogul/#1 Social Media Influencer

  Children: North, 2
  With 29 million followers on Instagram, 31 million followers on Twitter and the avidly watched E! show Keeping Up With the Kardashians—not to mention a retail enterprise, endorsement deals and a video game in her honor—there’s no denying the global reach of Kim K. At the helm of a multimedia juggernaut, she and her tireless clan have perfected the art of self-promotion as career, earning millions and millions in the process. But Kim is more than just selfies and photos that break the Internet and bing married to Kanye West. Just last month she, along with her famous sisters, made a pilgrimage to Armenia to honor ancestors who perished in the Armenian Genocide, focusing cameras (and much needed media attention) on one of the most underpublicized atrocities in recent history. In doing so, she managed to lend more headlines and cameras to the Armenian diaspora than anyone else had in the last century. Now that’s putting self-promotion to great use.
   
  

  Donna Langley

  Chairman, Universal Pictures
  Children: Two sons, 6 and 4
  Donna is one of the most powerful executives in Hollywood, the force behind the juggernaut Fast & Furious franchise. She’s just extended her contract through 2017 and has taken on oversight of worldwide marketing and overseas production as well. Universal's domestic box-office revenue is up 28 percent from 2010 under her watch. Formerly a host at the '90s Hollywood club The Roxbury, she scored a job at New Line and worked her way up the ladder to Chairman. But Donna isn’t all marquee all the time—she also has a philanthropic bent. As a member of Vital Voices, she provides women with the resources and life coaching to boost leadership endeavors alongside a group of women leaders from all over the world. In a recent interview with the Director’s Guild of America, she spoke of the need to cultivate more young female talent: “We have to look for the college or post-college group of women, and really get in there and mentor and support them in a way that hasn’t happened so far. I think that women are uniquely suited to the job of directing and I’ve seen it firsthand.” Way to pay it forward!
   
  

  Blake Lively

  Actress/Entrepreneur
  Children: Daughter James, newborn
  Brand new mom Blake is totally having a moment as an actress and entrepreneur. There’s no denying she’s come a a long way from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and Gossip Girl’s fashion-forward “it girl,” Serena Van Der Woodsen. After challenging herself with more intense roles in films like Savages and The Green Lantern (where she met hubby Ryan Reynolds), Blake now stars in the much touted film The Age of Adeline, about a woman who cannot age. Before having daughter James just a few months ago, she had already long celebrated a more domestic side—perfecting recipes alongside some of the world’s most celebrated chefs and hanging out with friend Martha Stewart. That sparked her to launch Preserve, a lifestyle retail website dedicated to the celebration of domestic handmade goods—kind of like an expertly curated Etsy with amazing photography. All of this prompted Forbes to name Blake to its juicy 30 Under 30 list earlier this year. On a recent Tonight Show appearance, the fashion icon joked with Jimmy Fallon that she and Ryan are already at war about daughter James’s first words: "She has to say 'ma-ma' first. I do everything! He does nothing!”
  
  

  Jennifer Lopez

  Singer/Actress/Producer/Designer/Businesswoman
  Children: Max and Emme, 7
  This tireless Renaissance workmom always has a few (well, many) irons in the fire—in front of and behind the camera. Aside from winning a Billboard Icon award last year and producing and starring in the Universal Picture thriller, The Boy Next Door, J. Lo's Nuyorican Productions just sold a few more TV projects: California, an ABC limited series about the state’s history, and the comedy Mothers I’d Like To…. She also produces ABC Family sitcom The Fosters, about an interracial lesbian couple and their children, is the voice of Rihanna’s mom in the current hit kid film Home and is, of course, an American Idol judge. Plus, her memoir, True Love, was a best seller. With such a heaping plate, the doting mom always manages to seem totally hands on, having recently gushed about her twins to People: “I know everybody feels this way about their kids, but I just feel like they're super-special. I can't wait to see what they do, and I feel like my job is to not mess them up too much. It's unconditional love.”
  
  
  
  

  Madonna

  Musician/Dancer/Actress//Producer/Mogul
  Children: Lourdes, 18, Rocco, 14, David, 9, and Mercy, 9
  Who are we to deny one of the most influential artists of the past 30 years her due? With her new album Rebel Heart, Madonna continues to push toward new boundaries. Her upcoming tour stands to earn the upward of $1 million per live show, to say nothing of album sales. Meanwhile, her oldest kid entered college, her second entered high school and her two children adopted from Africa are in primary school. She visits their homeland, Malawi, often and funds a number of orphanages, including the two from which she adopted her children. Ever the provocateur, Madonna recently told Carson Daly on the Today show that being a mom and Madonna can place her in some precarious moments: "Every time my kids would visit me in the studio, it would just so happen that I'd be working on a song like 'Holy Water' or 'S.E.X.' And I'd be like...'Stay outside. I'll be right out.’"
   
  

  Julianne Moore

  Actress/Producer
  Children: Caleb, 17, and Liv, 12
  This has proved to be Julianne’s year. A true woman of substance, the five-time Oscar nominee finally won for her powerful star performance in Still Alice—a moving film about a working mother with early onset dementia. Leveraging her ageless looks, the stunning 51-year old has scored seven-figure endorsement deals with brands like L’Oreal and Bulgari. She’s also a wildly creative children’s author; her children's book Freckleface Strawberry was made into a successful play and her next, Backpacks, will be on shelves this coming July. Her upcoming films include Freeheld, Maggie's Plan and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2. Julianne is known to be down-to-earth and a hands-on parent, and she often declares her adoration for hubby director/writer/producer Bart Freundlich and their two teens. On what she wants her kids to know about her work, she told Working Mother: "I don’t want them to know a lot, but I do want them to know, for their sake, that I really enjoy what I do, that I care about it, I look forward to doing it, and that I’ve chosen it because it’s a way of spending my life that is valuable. Obviously, most of us have to grow up and make a living, so I want them to do something they enjoy if possible."........more below
  

  • 
    The 50 Most Powerful Moms of 2015