Indra Nooyi ranked fourth in the gray eminence of 500 female

NEW YORK

The India-born chief executive of PepsiCo Indra Nooyi is one of 18 women who are currently at the head of the largest 500 companies in America, according to U.S. business magazine Fortune.

Nooyi ranked fourth by Fortune magazine in the Fortune 500 list of women

brokers.

"Nooyi has overseen a shift in soft drinks and less profitable, though healthy, snack foods market in recent years," said Fortune. Pepiso 41st bigget company in the United States.

The list was completed by Meg Whitman, chief information technology company, Hewlett-Packard, which came 10th overall list this year.

Virginia Rometty, President and CEO of IBM, was ranked second on the list. Rometty is the first woman to lead the technology giant, the American company ranked 19th, according to Fortune.

Other executives who have "broken the glass ceiling", include Patricia Woertz of agricultural output processors Archer Daniels Midland, Irene Rosenfeld, who heads Kraft Foods, Ursula Burns, who is chief executive at Xerox and Sherilyn McCoy Avon.

Xerox chief Ursula Burns is the first African American woman to head a Fortune 500 company.

There are 18 women in positions of CEO at Fortune 500 companies, while there are 21 other women CEOs in the Fortune 501 to 1000, some steel management, energy and oil companies.

Fortune 500 list this year includes more women CEOs in history, Fortune said, adding women currently hold 3.6% of the positions of CEO of Fortune 500 and 3.9% of positions CEO of Fortune 1000.

Activists, however, believe more women are needed on boards.

Catalyst, a research nonprofit advocating for more women in business, found that women hold in Canada 14.5% of board seats, a figure that increased by only half a% between 2009 and 2011 .

In America, women hold 16.1% of board seats, up from less than half a% from 2010.

About 10% of the top 500 U.S. companies, and nearly 40% of Canada's 500 largest companies have no women on their boards, according to Catalyst.