Michelle Obama has had quite the post-White House career, with the former first lady adding a number of adjectives in front of her name, like best-selling author of 2018.
She gained the nickname FLOTUS, first lady of the United States, during her time in the White House. Now, a couple of years after her run as FLOTUS, she has a new moniker − most admired woman in America.
In Gallup's annual survey on the most admired men and women across the globe, Obama ranked at the top of the list, alongside her husband former President Barack Obama, who ranked as the No. 1 admired man in the world. The No. 1 ranking marks the first time in 17 years former first lady Hillary Clinton was not ranked at the top of the list. Obama had trailed in second place for the last three years in the most admired woman ranking, according to gallup.com.
“The year 2018 brought about a change at the top of Gallup's Most Admired Woman list for the first time in 17 years, with Hillary Clinton falling back now that she has more fully retreated to private life... Michelle Obama stepped into that void as she has authored a best-selling autobiography and is promoting it with a major tour of large U.S. arenas,” Jeffrey M. Jones wrote in the Gallup article about the ranking.
Obama's book "Becoming" has broken several records, and her book tour has had massive appeal, nearly selling out many arenas across the country. Obama's memoir also recently became the best-selling Christmas book in the UK, unseating longtime bestseller David Walliams "The Midnight Gang". Stateside, "Becoming" rapidly climbed to the No. 1 spot for book sales this year. The book sold more than 3 million copies within a month of its release.
The surveying, which has been conducted for more than 70 years, was conducted between Dec. 3 and 12 this year. The results are based on phone interviews with a random sampling of 1,025 adults over the age of 18 in the U.S. The interviews are conducted in both Spanish and English. The respondents were asked about the most admired man and woman in 2018 and the most admired man and woman by political party.
Here’s the full list of the most admired women, 2018:
Michelle Obama
Oprah Winfrey
Hillary Clinton
Melania Trump
Queen Elizabeth
Angela Merkel
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Ellen DeGeneres
Nikki Haley
Malala Yousafzai
Nancy Pelosi
The top 5 most admired men, 2018:
Barack Obama
Donald Trump
George W. Bush
Pope Francis
Bill Gates
To see the complete results of the Gallup poll, visit the website.
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