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Powerful women in Washington From the D.C. police department to the Supreme Court and the International Monetary Fund, more and more institutions in the nation’s capital are seeing women take the lead.
Susan Rice, National Security Adviser nominee
Rice, a Rhodes Scholar and former valedictorian at Washington's National Cathedral School, has been the first African American woman to serve as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
Spencer Platt
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Getty Images
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Samantha Power, U.N. ambassador-designee
Power has been a longtime foreign affairs and national security adviser to Obama. The Pulitzer Prize-winning author and human rights expert will need Senate approve before she takes the U.N. job.
Charles Dharapak
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AP
Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor
Sonia Sotomayor, the first Hispanic woman to serve on the high court, succeeded the retiring David Souter in 2009. She has been a forceful questioner on the court and has taken to Washington as well, saying her U Street neighborhood reminds her of the East Village in her native New York. Sotomayor's memoir of growing up in the Bronx, "My Beloved World,'' became a best-seller in early 2013.
Jim Young
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Reuters
Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan
Elena Kagan, Obama's solicitor general, became the fourth female to serve on the court in 2010. She posed in a high school yearbook in a judge's robe and with a gavel. She lives in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of Washington.
Melina Mara
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The Washington Post
Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of health and human services
Sebelius was the second female governor of Kansas, and in 2011, she was named the 13th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes.
Mark Wilson
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Getty Images
Janet Napolitano, Department of Homeland Security
Napolitano was Arizona’s third female governor and the first female attorney general of Arizona. When Obama left a phone message in late 2008 about taking the Cabinet position, Napolitano said she reflexively hit the erase button. "Then I thought, 'Oh man, I just erased the president-elect of the United States. That's so wrong.''' She took the job.
Charles Dharapak
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AP
Valerie Jarrett, senior adviser to the president
Jarrett, who introduced Barack Obama to his future wife, Michelle, is perhaps the most powerful woman in town. She was previously the chairman of the Chicago Transit Board, the commissioner of planning and development for the city of Chicago, and deputy chief of staff for Mayor Richard M. Daley.
Marvin Joseph
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The Washington Post
Christine Lagarde, International Monetary Fund
In 2011, Forbes ranked Lagarde the world's ninth most-powerful person. She was the first woman to become minister of economic affairs of a Group of Eight economy (France), first female chair of the international law firm Baker & McKenzie and first female chief of the International Monetary Fund — following the scandal-plagued, hard-partying Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Lagarde doesn't drink alcohol and is a vegetarian. She sang ska in a band in college, and her hobbies include scuba diving.
Sebastian Nogier
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AFP/Getty Images
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.)
Wasserman Schultz is the first Jewish congresswoman elected from Florida and is chairman of the Democratic National Committee. In 2008, she underwent several surgeries related to breast cancer, while keeping on top of her House duties.
Lynne Sladky
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AP
Cathy Lanier, DC Police chief
Cathy Lanier is the first woman to be police chief of the District. Raised just outside Washington in Prince George's County, she began on the force in 1990. She rose from humble origins — she was pregnant at 14 and dropped out of high school. "Having my son is what has driven everything I've done for the 30 years that he has been alive,'' she told Washingtonian magazine in April.
Evan Vucci
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AP
Sally Jewell, secretary of the interior
Jewell began her career as an engineer for Mobil Oil and worked as a commercial banker before heading the nearly $2 billion outdoors equipment company REI. She is an avid climber and hiker who scaled Antarctica’s highest peak two years ago and has repeatedly climbed Washington state’s Mount Rainier.
Cliff Owen
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AP
D.C. Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson
Henderson rose from the deputy chancellor and previously served as executive director of Team for America-D.C. She began as a middle-school teacher in the South Bronx, following the path of her mother, a former teacher and principal.
Katherine Frey
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The Washington Post
Sylvia Mathews Burwell, OMB director
Before being confirmed as White House budget director in April 2013, Burwell was president of the Wal-Mart Foundation and had worked at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Burwell, a West Virginia native, was a deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget during the Clinton administration.
Mandel Ngan
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AFP/Getty Images
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Section:/national/on-leadership
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