As the old commercial goes, "I can bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan, and never ever let you forget you're a man because I'm a woman…" I imagine that's what the 100 self-made female billionaires in the world sing as they are taking off their jewelry and/or makeup at the end of a long day of kicking ass and taking names.
In 2020, self-made female billionaires finally reached 100 in number, up 11 from 2019. The combined wealth of these inspirational women is $262 billion. That averages out to $2.6 billion each (and of course some have much, much, more money than that), which is a 19% increase over a year ago.
Tom Cooper/Getty Images
China dominates the list of self-made female billionaires with 61, including Zhong Huijan, the 59-year-old founder of Jiangsu Hansoh Pharmaceutical Group. Diane Hendrick, Sara Blakely, and Oprah Winfrey are three of the American self-made female billionaires. The U.S. has 19 self-made female billionaires, followed by the U.K. with six, and India with two. Overall, the 100 self-made female billionaires are from 16 countries. The top three industries that these women have succeeded in are manufacturing (15), real estate (14), technology, media, and communications (14). Of the world's top 20 richest women only three are self-made.
Women still have a long way to go to have as big a presence on the annual list of the richest people in the world as men do, but at least we are gaining ground, thanks to these 100 ambitious women.
