Washington, D.C.—Just when it seemed like discussions of women and work would never get past the recent White House follies, a story comes along to restore faith in the triumphs of hard work in a free society.

"The Fifty Most Powerful Women in American Business," an October 12 Fortune cover story by Patricia Sellers, profiles women who have achieved great things, often with little acclaim. Their stories show how hard work, personal sacrifice, and facing adversity can lead to tremendous success, regardless of your sex.

To create this impressive roster, the editors interviewed industry leaders and peers, measured revenues, and evaluated the importance of the business in the global economy and its impact on American culture. Most of the names are unfamiliar yet these women are changing the shape of the economy, in America and abroad. They represent a rich diversity, including finance, high technology, and entertainment. But what’s most interesting is how universal their stories seem to be.

Hard work, serendipitous luck, and grabbing an opportunity before it passes by—these are the themes repeated throughout the profiles. And not a single one is gender-specific. At the number one spot is the woman who made Lucent Technologies a household name by venturing into an obscure area of a huge company, AT&T, and making that area something special.

Her name is Carly Fiorina, and her career advice to women is a brilliantly hopeful assessment of gender issues in the workplace: "Don’t think of yourself as a woman in business," she says. "I’ve never thought in terms of ‘men do this’ and ‘women do that.’"

When feminist groups complain about the relatively small proportion of women in top corporate, they blame an unfriendly corporate culture instead of looking at questions of individual choice and achievement. For all the pluses of being a top executive, there are many less attractive aspects of the job. Ultimately, success is a word with a very personal definition.

Take the story of Brenda Barnes, once CEO of PepsiCo USA, who resigned last year to move home and live a quieter life with her young family. While she still serves on several corporate boards, she is also a woman reclaiming her life from the demands of work and remaking the terms of her relationship with the business world, based on her personal needs. But not all women step off the corporate track for family reasons; many leave to develop their own ideas and for the freedom and potential of working for themselves.

More than eight million American businesses are owned by women, and according to a recent survey from the women’s research group Catalyst, more than half of female entrepreneurs who had worked in the private sector cite the desire for more flexibility as the major reason for leaving their corporate position. Many of the women on Fortune’s list left corporate posts to set up independent businesses. They find the work challenging but rewarding. One woman left a top job at Disney to create her own multimedia company. As she put it, "Real power is creating stuff."

It’s the spirit of entrepreneurship that made this country’s experiment in opportunity such a success—hard work, creativity, and the power to choose your own path. The powerful women on the Fortune list serve as a timely reminder that the fundamentals of this country still work, regardless of who you are and what you want to do.

— Katherine Post

Senior Fellow of Women's Studies