Why Barbie Made Forbes’ 2023 Power Women List

As governments roll back women’s rights, Barbie emerged as a symbol not only of female empowerment but the necessity of fighting to recapture power that’s been taken away.

Barbie is the first-ever fictional character to be selected as one of Forbes’ most powerful women in the world, a list that otherwise includes 99 hardworking, flesh-and-blood founders, leaders and innovators. It’s an unconventional choice, we know, and could be especially controversial in a year of wars, environmental challenges, creeping threats to democracy and the continuing rollback of women’s rights.

But the very real difficulties in conquering those obstacles are exactly why we chose her for the list.

Barbie may be a doll, but in 2023 she became much more. On the strength of Greta Gerwig’s Warner Bros. movie, Barbie expanded beyond a symbol of female empowerment to become an avatar for the necessity of fighting to recapture power that’s been taken away. She’s inspired girls and their mothers for generations, but this was the year women needed her most. And she came through. Nearly 65 years into her “life,” the 11.5-inch Barbie stands at the height of her influence.

“She’s a force to be reckoned with,” says Lisa McKnight, Mattel’s chief brand officer and global head of Barbie. “She galvanized a movement. Barbie is absolutely hitting her stride right now.”

McKnight says that with full knowledge that Mattel, her employer, is a direct beneficiary of Barbie’s galvanizing powers. Influence may not be easily calculated, but Barbie came through on the math, too. She boosted an entire industry. On the heels of Barbie the movie, sales of Barbie the doll jumped 16% in the third quarter, to $605 million, from the same period in 2022. Market-research authority Euromonitor International says the effect is not limited to Mattel; Barbie could propel global doll sales to $14 billion by 2027, a 16% “jumpstart” after sales lagged in 2022.

Record crowds turned the movie into a touchstone. Barbie drew $1.4 billion at the global box office, enough to land Gerwig in the history books as the first woman to helm a $1 billion-plus moneymaker as a solo director. The movie was so talked-about that it drew the disapproval of Fox News and, in the middle of its pre-release publicity hype, Pantone named a deep pink, Barbie’s favorite, its color of the year.

Barbie also rocks the social-media metrics of a powerful woman. She boasts more than 5 million followers across TikTok and Instagram and has nearly 12 million subscribers on YouTube.

The numbers, impressive as they may be, are dwarfed by Barbie’s intangibles.