KARACHI: Women occupy a small but growing slice of Forbes’ World Billionaires list. This year 369 out of 2,781 billionaires or 13.3% are women, up from 337 in 2023, when women accounted for 12.8% of the list. Together they are worth nearly $1.8 trillion, about $240 billion more than last year.
The world’s richest woman for the fourth consecutive year is L’Oréal heiress Françoise Bettencourt Meyers. Her fortune jumped $19 billion in the past 12 months, putting her net worth at $99.5 billion, the biggest gain of any woman on the 2024 list, but just short for her to become the first woman to crack the swelling ranks of the $100 billion club.
For more than two decades, either a Bettencourt or a Walton heiress has ranked No. 1 among all women. Bettencourt Meyers first took the top spot in 2019, two years after the death of her mother Liliane Bettencourt, who had held the title for six of the years from 2006 to 2017. Walmart founder Sam Walton’s only daughter, art devotee Alice Walton, the second richest woman in the world, was the richest woman in 2018 and 2020. Her sister-in-law Christy Walton ranked above her for seven years after the death of her husband John Walton in a helicopter crash; her fortune was later split up between her and her son Lukas.
Nine of the 10 richest women inherited their fortunes, either from fathers, husbands or in one case, mother. MacKenzie Scott is the only one in the top 10 to get her fortune via divorce. The ex-wife of Jeff Bezos, Scott, who is worth $35.6 billion, is up $11.2 billion from last year despite working at a whirlwind pace to give it away. The billionaire philanthropist recently donated $640 million to over 300 nonprofits, bringing her total lifetime philanthropic giving to $17.3 billion. Had she not been so generous, she would be worth $69 billion and rank as the third richest woman on the list, not fifth as she is now.
Rafaela Aponte-Diamant, cofounder of one of the world’s largest shipping companies, is once again the richest self-made woman on Forbes’ list. She’s also the seventh richest woman on the list and the only one of the 10 ten richest women who is self-made. This year 100 women on the list are self-made, by which we mean they founded or cofounded a company or built their fortune themselves, as opposed to inheriting it. Another 200 women inherited their fortunes, while 69 women are working to expand the successful businesses they inherited. Abigail Johnson, the richest woman who inherited and is growing her company, is the tenth richest woman in the world this year, up from 11th richest last year. The Fidelity Investments CEO took over for her father in 2014 and helped boost revenue to a record $28.2 billion in 2023.
There are 46 new women who earned a spot on the 2024 list, some on account of stock rallies and others through inheritance. The richest new women are two sisters, Märta Schörling Andreen and Sofia Högberg Schörling of Sweden. Their father, billionaire investor Melker Schörling, died in December 2023 and he left his fortune to his daughters, age 39 and 45. Each is worth $5.6 billion.
Two other newcomers are from the tech sector: Michelle Zatlyn, cofounder of cybersecurity company Cloudflare, and Lisa Su, who heads semiconductor firm Advanced Micro Devices; both women benefited from surging shares at their respective companies in the past year.
The most notable newcomer of all is pop star Taylor Swift, whose Eras Tour earned her an estimated $190 million after tax, helping make her the first billionaire musician bankrolled solely by performances, recordings and a lucrative half-billion dollar music catalog. She debuted as a billionaire in October.
