It’s been one heck of a year for former First Lady Michelle Obama. To top it off, a new poll shows that Michelle Obama is America’s Most Admired Woman.According to the annual Gallup poll, Obama unseated another former FLOTUS, Hillary Clinton – who had been in first place for 17(!) years – to claim the top spot. Michelle didn’t just scrape pole position either. She was the clear winner with 15% of the vote, with Oprah in second place with 5% of the vote. Hillary Clinton was just behind Oprah with 5%.
The Gallup Most Admired Poll has run almost every year since 1946 although in its first two years there was no list of women. Another former first lady, Eleanor Roosevelt, was the first to capture the top spot of the Most Admired Women Poll in 1948.
In a way Obama’s win seems obvious and inevitable. 2018 was Michelle Obama’s year. In February, she helped unveil her official portrait for the Smithsonian painted by Amy Sherald for the National Portrait Gallery in D.C. In March it was revealed that the Obamas were in talks with Netflix to produce a T.V. series. It was also announced later in the year that her memoirs would be called ‘Becoming’. When it was finally published in November it became an instant success selling more than 1.4 million copies in the first week. She set off on a book tour, making a stop in London at the Southbank Centre for which people tried to resell tickets for as much as £70k and the queue was tens of thousands of eager fans long. As if this wasn’t enough, she then broke the internet with her glorious sparkly thigh-high Balenciaga boots.
Other women who made the list include activist Malala Yousefzai, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg aka the Notorious RBG, and Queen Elizabeth.
Former President Barack Obama also topped the America’s Most Admired Man list (for the 11th year in a row, by the way). Now that’s a power couple!