– It’s that time again. While August is usually a time of beach vacations and summer Fridays, for the Broadsheet team, it’s the moment when we kick off one of our favorite annual projects: putting together our list of the Most Powerful Women in Business.

The ranking, which will publish in the fall, is a long tradition at Fortune—going back more than two decades!—though we have made some updates over time. Today, it focuses on five criteria: the size and importance of the executive’s business in the global economy, the health and direction of the business, the arc of her career, her social and cultural influence, and how she’s wielding her power to shape her company and the wider world.

We are always looking for new candidates, so hope you don’t mind me taking this Friday morning to interrupt our regularly scheduled programming to put out a call: we’re currently accepting nominations to the list and would love to hear from you about who we should consider this year. If you’d like to submit someone, here’s the info we need:

• The candidate’s title, to whom she reports, her responsibilities, and how many employees she oversees
• What country she’s based in
• The candidate’s bio, including corporate boards or boards of other influential organizations
• Specific accomplishments from the past year
• The company’s annual revenue and profit
•  If the candidate is the head of a division, the division’s annual revenue and income
• A description of how the candidate has, in a professional context, used her power to advance the interests of employees, the community, and/or society at large. (Some examples: instituting gender/racial pay parity, creating a program or business unit that serves a disadvantaged population, measurably reducing the company’s carbon footprint, or creating new hiring pipelines that have resulted in a more diverse workforce.) 

Please send any nominations to FortuneMPW2021@fortune.com—and thank you!

Kristen Bellstrom
kristen.bellstrom@fortune.com
@kayelbee

The Broadsheet, Fortune’s newsletter for and about the world’s most powerful women, is coauthored by Kristen Bellstrom, Emma Hinchliffe, and Claire Zillman. Today’s edition was curated by Claire Zillman. 

ALSO IN THE HEADLINES

- Britney, freed? In a sharp turn of events, Britney Spears' father says he will step down from running the pop star's conservatorship. Spears has said the arrangement in which her father oversees her finances is abusive. Her fans have rallied behind her, pushing the family affair into the mainstream. A lawyer for James Spears said there was "no actual grounds for suspending or removing" him from the position, but that the singer's dad would work to assure “an orderly transition to a new conservator.” New York Times

- Turned down. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett on Thursday decided to not block an Indiana University vaccine mandate, a ruling she made in her capacity as the circuit justice for the 7th Circuit, not as a SCOTUS judge. She gave no explanation for why she denied the motion for emergency relief filed by students who are challenging the school's requirement. Politico

- New policies. After an employee accused her manager of rape, Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba is instituting new policies to combat sexual harassment, including the creation of a committee—comprised of five female executives—that's dedicated to preventing sexual harassment. WSJ 

MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Kroger elected former U.S. transportation secretary Elaine Chao to its board. Target Corporation has added Anthem CEO Gail Boudreaux to its board. Amy Nelson, founder of The Riveter, has been named president of SaksWorks; Liat Myers has taken over as president The Riveter. 

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

- Noted. Fortune's Jessica Mathews found a footnote in Nasdaq's new diversity rules that acknowledges that some companies may need more time to meet the requirements because they've already allocated board seats to the venture capital firms that have backed them. And we know that VC employees are overwhelmingly white and male. Fortune

- Ready for reelection. Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul has not yet officially replaced Andrew Cuomo as New York governor, but she's already committed to running in the 2022 gubernatorial election. "I am prepared for this," she said. She's likely to be a front-runner in the contest. Fortune

- Going backwards. The Taliban's takeover of cities across Afghanistan is fueling concern that the militant group is breaking its promise to allow women to work. Last month, Taliban fighters entered the offices of Azizi Bank in Kandahar and escorted the nine women working there home. The fighters ordered them not to return and allowed a male relative to take their place. Reuters

ON MY RADAR

Allyson Felix defies 'old logic' to create her shoe line in Logitech's empowering ad Ad Age

The march of the Karens New York Times

In China, women fill gap in heavy-labor industries WSJ

PARTING WORDS

"There is nothing like helping students find their confidence and begin to use their voices, or seeing that spark light up in their eyes the moment a concept falls into place."

- First Lady Jill Biden on her favorite part of teaching. She'll be back in the classroom this fall.