The World’s Most Powerful Women: September 13

The FTSE 100 lost one of its few female directors on Monday.

Laura Wade-Gery, who was the multichannel director of U.K. Retail and online operations for Marks & Spencer and a board member, said she is leaving the company following her year-long maternity leave. Wade-Gery, who’s 51, was considered one of M&S’s brightest stars and even a CEO contender, but that job went to Steve Rowe while Wade-Gery was on leave. When Rowe took over in April, he rejiggered the responsibilities of his executive team and simplified the firm’s management structure, which fueled speculation of whether there would be a role for Wade-Gery when she returned.

A year ago, M&S announced that Wade-Gery, who joined M&S in 2011, would take four months of maternity leave, but last December she extended it to September 1.

On Monday, both parties announced the departure with pleasantries. M&S chairman Robert Swannell thanked Wade-Gery and wished her the best, while Wade-Gery herself said that the time she was away from M&S saw “some significant changes in both my personal life and in the business.”

“I concluded that the time was right to move on from M&S,” she said.

Perhaps that’s all there is to it, but the exit of such a high-profile woman following her maternity leave echoes the challenges facing new mothers in the U.K. That a British charity, and an economic research institute, and a group of MPs all highlighted recently.

@clairezillman

EUROPE/MIDDLE EAST/AFRICA

A FIFA first
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Bitter-sweet

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Coins2Day

THE AMERICAS

The charisma gap

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Quartz

It's time to open up, Hillary

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Guardian

Talks like a man?

A UC Irvine grad student studied Hillary Cllinton's speech patterns and discovered that "when Clinton occupied a political office or took on a major policy initiative (as in 1993-1994), her language conformed to a masculine style."

Fast company

ASIA-PACIFIC

A de facto leader

Myanmar's civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi will visit President Barack Obama tomorrow as the U.S. Considers lifting or easing some of the sanctions against the Southeast Asian nation. The meeting will reinforce her status on the global stage. She won a decisive victory in November but is banned from assuming Myanmar's presidency by the constitution drafted by the former junta.

Voice of America

Will she stay or will she go?

Arundhati Bhattacharya is No. 2 on Coins2Day's MPW International list and is one of the few women leading an Indian bank. Her second term as head of the State Bank of India is due to end this month, but the government might keep her on. Here's a look at her 38 years at the institution.

Financial Times