Top 10 Richest Women In the U.S: Self-Made, Oldest, Youngest Billionaires
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| Photo KnowInsiders |
The richest people in America are still predominantly men. But, among this year’s Forbes 400 list of the wealthiest people in the U.S., women continue to hold their ground. A total of 56 women made this year’s list, unchanged from a year ago (this includes two women—Judy Love and Lynda Resnick—who share a multi-billion dollar fortune with their husbands). They’re worth a collective $564 billion, up by more than $100 billion.
Youngest &Self-Made Richest Women in the United States
Whitney Wolfe Herd has made a name for herself. The female-first dating app she co-founded, Bumble, grew into a formidable competitor for her former employer, Match Group (which owns Tinder and OkCupid, among others).
At age 31, Wolfe Herd became the youngest self-made female CEO in the country after Bumble’s $2.2 billion IPO in February 2021.
| Youngest | Name | Net Worth | Age | Source of wealth |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Whitney Wolfe Herd | $1.2 B | 32 | Dating app |
| #2 | Rihanna | $1.7 B | 33 | Cosmetics, music |
| #3 | Neha Narkhede | $1.4 B | 37 | Software |
| #4 | Lynsi Snyder | $4.2 B | 39 | In-N-Out Burger |
| #5 | Kim Kardashian West | $1.2 B | 41 | Cosmetics, reality TV |
| #6 | Jane Lauder | $6.7 B | 48 | Estée Lauder |
| #7 | Amy Wyss | $2.0 B | 50 | Medical equipment |
| #8 | Sara Blakely | $1.2 B | 50 | Spanx |
| #9 | MacKenzie Scott | $56.1 B | 51 | Amazon |
| #10 | Aerin Lauder | $4.2 B | 51 | Cosmetics |
Wearing many hats from influencer to entrepreneur, socialite Kim Kardashian West’s cosmetics and fashion companies (KKW Beauty and shapewear line Skims) have catapulted her to a newfound billionaire status.
The self-made label is an additional fascinating avenue to explore.
One of the newest entrants into this mix is Rihanna. She already enjoyed significant success as an entertainer, with her claim to fame being one of the best-selling artists of the 2010s. However, it was her entrepreneurial spirit that put her on the Forbes list in August 2021. Rihanna owns 50% of her cosmetics company, Fenty Beauty. The other half is run by Bernard Arnault, who is among the world’s top billionaires.
Here is the rest of the top 20 self-made richest women in America:
| Self-Made | Name | Net Worth | Age | Source of wealth |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Diane Hendricks | $11.7 B | 74 | Roofing |
| #2 | Judy Faulkner | $6.5 B | 77 | Health IT |
| #3 | Meg Whitman | $6.3 B | 65 | eBay |
| #4 | Judy Love | $5.2 B | 84 | Retail and gas stations |
| #5 | Marian Ilitch | $4.4 B | 88 | Little Caesars |
| #6 | Johnelle Hunt | $4.1 B | 89 | Trucking |
| #7 | Thai Lee | $4.1 B | 62 | IT Provider |
| #8 | Lynda Resnick | $4.0 B | 78 | Agriculture |
| #9 | Gail Miller | $3.2 B | 77 | Car dealerships |
| #10 | Doris Fisher | $2.8 B | 90 | Gap |
For those paying attention to the rapid rise of the fintech industry, Jenny Just’s entry on this list will come as no surprise. Her firm, Apex Fintech Solutions powers the trading technology behind companies like SoFi and eToro. In fact, she has started or bought 15 businesses in the space in just 24 years.
Oldest Richest Women in United States
The oldest female billionaire in the world, Alice Schwartz, is 95 years old. She co-founded Bio-Rad Laboratories with her husband, which operates in the life sciences research and clinical diagnostics markets. They started the company in 1952 with only $720 in the bank.
| Oldest | Name | Net Worth | Age | Source of wealth |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Alice Schwartz | $3.0 B | 95 | Biotech |
| #2 | Wilma Tisch | $1.4 B | 94 | Diversified |
| #3 | Doris Fisher | $2.8 B | 90 | Gap |
| #4 | Johnelle Hunt | $4.7 B | 89 | Trucking |
| #5 | Marian Ilitch | $4.4 B | 88 | Little Caesars |
| #6 | Pauline MacMillan Keinath | $8.5 B | 87 | Cargill |
| #7 | Margot Birmingham Perot | $4.2 B | 87 | Computer services, real estate |
| #8 | Martha Ingram & family | $3.9 B | 86 | Book distribution, transportation |
| #9 | Janice McNair | $4.2 B | 85 | Energy, sports |
| #10 | Norma Lerner | $1.1 B | 85 | Banking |
After her husband’s passing in 2018, Janice McNair (aged 85) took over his 80% stake in the NFL team Houston Texans, which ranks highly as one of the world’s most valuable sports teams.
Who are the richest women in the US?
1. Alice Walton
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| Photo Insider |
Net Worth: $67.9 billion
Source: Walmart
The only daughter of Walmart founder Sam Walton, Alice Walton inherited a huge portion of the company upon her father’s death in 1992. A member of the richest nonroyal family in the world, Walton has spent very little time working for the family business, instead focusing on curating artwork. In 2011, she opened her own art museum in Arkansas, the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, which features works from greats like Warhol, Rockwell, and Rothko.
She also pursued interests in art, founding the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. She opened a sliding-scale Christian summer camp called Camp War Eagle in 2006. Early this year, Alice announced the launch of her Whole Health Institute in Bentonville, with a mission of changing the nation’s approach to healthcare to focus on goal-based wellness rather than sickness.
READ MORE: Top 10 Frugal Billionaires Who Live Like Miserable People
2. MacKenzie Scott
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| Photo BBC |
Net Worth: $58.5 billion
Source: Amazon
After 25 years of marriage to the world’s richest man — Amazon founder Jeff Bezos — MacKenzie Scott came into her own tens of billions of dollars as part of the couple’s divorce settlement in 2019.
Soon after, she famously vowed to give away the majority of her wealth as part of the Giving Pledge, a movement of philanthropists committing to giving back to charitable causes. As of July 2020, she says she has donated $1.7 billion thus far to 119 different nonprofit organizations, including historically Black colleges, LGBTQ+ groups and other environmental and women’s equality causes.
Scott met Bezos when they worked together at the D.E. Shaw hedge fund. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in English from Princeton University and has published two novels.
3. Julia Koch & family
Net Worth: $51 billion
Source: Koch Industries
The wife of billionaire industrialist David Koch, whose family made a fortune in petrochemicals, Julia Koch inherited a 42% stake in Koch Industries when David died in 2019.
Julia was born in Iowa and her parents later owned a women’s clothing boutique in the town of Conway, Arkansas. She moved to New York in the 1980s to model and became an assistant to the designer Adolfo, dressing the likes of Nancy Reagan.
She now leads the David H. Koch Foundation, which supports education, the arts and medical research, including a recent $10 million donation to allergy and asthma research at the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford.
4. Jacqueline Mars
Net Worth: $31`.8 billion
Source: candy, pet food
Jacqueline Mars is the great-aunt of the four Mars sisters highlighted earlier in this list. She owns an estimated one-third of her grandfather’s candy company, and she worked for the company for nearly 20 years and served on the board until 2016. Today, Mars serves on the board of six different institutions, including the Smithsonian and the National Archives.
| She worked for the company for nearly 20 years and served on the board until 2016. Her son Stephen Badger is on Mars' board of directors. Mars serves on the board of the National Archives and was formerly on the board of the Washington National Opera. Her brother John owns an estimated third of Mars; her late brother Forrest Jr's. four daughters own the rest. |
5. Miriam Adelson
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| Photo Guardian |
Net Worth: $30.4 billion
Source: casinos
Miriam Adelson is the widow of Sheldon Adelson, the former CEO and chairman of casino company Las Vegas Sands, who died at 87 in January 2021.
She now owns more than half of the $48 billion (market cap) gambling empire, which has casinos in Las Vegas, Singapore and Macao.
As GOP megadonors, Miriam and Sheldon Adelson donated $180 million to Republican campaigns and political action committees in 2020.
Born in Israel, she became a medical doctor focusing on addiction.
She and Sheldon founded the Sheldon G. Adelson Research Clinic in Las Vegas, which treats people for opioid use disorder
6. Abigail Johnson
Net Worth: $25.2 billion
Source: money management
The CEO and chairperson of Fidelity Investments, Abigail Johnson took over the executive role from her father in 2014. Her grandfather founded the financial firm in Boston in 1946. She earned an MBA from Harvard, worked summers at the family company and became an analyst there in 1988.
Johnson has taken a nontraditional approach at the helm of Fidelity, launching new products targeting millennials and embracing socially responsible investing and cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and blockchain. She is married to healthcare entrepreneur Christopher McKown.
7. Laurene Powell Jobs
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| Photo South China Morning Post |
Net Worth: $22.1 billion
Source: Apple, Disney
The widow of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, Laurene Powell Jobs inherited billions of dollars of stock in Apple and Disney when he died in 2011 of pancreatic cancer.
In 2004, she founded the Emerson Collective, an investment and philanthropic organization supporting social change in education, the environment, media and health. She also holds a majority stake in The Atlantic magazine.
Before meeting her husband, she earned a Bachelor of Arts in political science and a Bachelor of Science in economics from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. She also holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
8. Diane Hendricks
Net Worth: $11 billion
Source: roofing
Diane Hendricks chairs ABC Supply, one of the largest wholesale distributors of roofing, siding and windows in America.
Hendricks cofounded the business with her late husband, Ken, in Beloit, Wisconsin, in 1982. She has run it since his death in 2007.
She led ABC to make the two biggest acquisitions in its history, buying rival Bradco in 2010 and building materials distributor L&W Supply in 2016.
The company has nearly 800 branch locations and over $12 billion in 2020 revenues.
Hendricks sold custom homes for a builder before meeting Ken, a roofer.
She has spent millions on local economic development, rebuilding entire blocks in Beloit and bringing in several new businesses to the state.
9. Blair Parry-Okeden: $8.2 Billion
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| Photo Alchetron |
Blair Parry-Okeden is the granddaughter of James M. Cox, founder of Cox Enterprises, a private telecom company with communications and automotive divisions. Parry-Okeden inherited a 25% stake in the $21 billion company from her mother, Barbara Cox Anthony. Her brother, Jim Kennedy, is Cox’s chairperson, though she plays no role in the company.
Parry-Okeden, 70, lives in New South Wales, Australia, where she moved to live with her ex-husband, Simon Parry-Okeden, the son of a prominent Australian agriculturalist. She was ranked as Australia’s richest person on the 2016 Forbes Rich List. In 1989 she authored a children’s book called “Down By The Gate.”
10. Ann Walton Kroenke
Net Worth: $9.3 billion
Source: Walmart
Ann Walton Kroenke and her sister, Nancy Walton Laurie, are both heiresses to the Walmart fortune via their father, Bud Walton, who co-founded the company with his brother.
Walton Kroenke has a nursing degree and is married to billionaire real estate developer Stan Kroenke, who owns five U.S. and U.K. sports teams, including the Los Angeles Rams and Denver Nuggets. Stan reportedly purchased the Nuggets with his wife’s backing. She is not involved with the Walmart company.
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