Hillary Clinton tops Gallup’s list of “most admired” women for the eleventh time in a row and 17th time overall. Over the past two decades the only other women to best her in the annual survey were Mother Teresa (twice: 1995 and 1996) and Laura Bush (once: 2001). In 2009, Sarah Palin came close to joining that list, falling one percentage point short of Clinton’s 16 percent. Three years later Palin is still on the list, but with only 2 percent of the mentions.
President Obama tops the men’s division for the fifth time in a row. One of the most noteworthy changes from previous lists is the complete absence of business titans this time around. Last year’s group included Warren Buffett, Donald Trump and Bill Gates.
The simple question asked of respondents: What man/woman “that you have heard or read about, living today in any part of the world, do you admire most? And who is your second choice?” The open-ended nature of the survey means that those men and women with the most name recognition have a clear advantage over their lesser-known counterparts.
