(FORTUNE Magazine) – IS SHE POWERFUL BECAUSE SHE'S HIGHLY PAID, OR HIGHLY paid because she's powerful? This year we again asked the compensation experts at Equilar to calculate the total value of last year's pay packages for executive women, enlarging the field from the S&P 500 to include companies with at least $1 billion in revenues. We discovered that money and power are more closely entwined than ever: Eleven of our Power 50 are among the 15 best-paid, and eBay CEO Meg Whitman is in a class by herself, with a package worth $42.6 million. Of that, about $40 million comes from the value of the 1.1 million options Whitman was awarded in 2003. (Equilar includes salary, bonuses, restricted stock, long-term incentive-plan payouts, the value of option grants using the Black-Scholes formula as of the grant date, and other compensation disclosed in company proxies as of Aug. 31, 2004.) While Genentech's dynamic duo also scored big on options last year, Morgan Stanley's Zoe Cruz (pictured) takes the prize for cold, hard cash, thanks to a $7.9 million bonus. Ironically, her firm settled a gender-discrimination suit just this year--a reminder that big pay for women is still the exception, not the rule. -- Ann Harrington