Women everywhere from China and the U.S. to Indonesia and Russia have broken many glass ceilings, thanks to everything from coal and collagen to software and soy sauce.
It’s never been a better time for women entrepreneurs – at least by the numbers. There are now an estimated 658 million female founders and company owners worldwide, compared to 772 million men, per the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor. Nearly two-thirds are early stage entrepreneurs, compared to less than half of their male counterparts.
“Women’s entrepreneurship is the number one policy solution to things like health deficits and education deficits,” says Amanda Elam, who authored GEM’s latest Women’s Entrepreneurship Report. “The types of businesses women start are [also in locations that are] fun to live in. And it turns out companies like to build their operations in places like that. So in international development, there’s been this awakening.”
As a nod to the triumphs and challenges for this cohort, for the first time ever, Forbes has compiled a standalone global ranking of the world’s 50 richest self-made women. These ceiling breakers—who have made their fortunes in everything from collagen to coal—hail from 13 nations and four continents (there are currently none from Africa or South America). Altogether they are worth $276 billion, or $5.5 billion on average. That’s $10 billion less than what the top 50 were worth at their peak in 2021, but $158 million higher than in 2017 – the first year Forbes tracked that many self-made women.
The richest self-made woman in the world is Swiss shipping magnate Rafaela Aponte-Diamant, with a net worth of $38.8 billion. She and her husband Gianluigi Aponte started and co-own the Mediterranean Shipping Company, now the world’s largest shipping line, with over 136,000 employees, 900 vessels and 675 offices. Rafaela started the Mediterranean Shipping Company with a $200,000 loan, which the couple used to finance their first ship and eventually expanded to a fleet of 17 in nine years. Read our story on her here. At 80, she’s still in charge of designing the interiors and decorations of ships and sits on the board of the MSC foundation, the company’s philanthropic arm.
At a distant number two is America’s Diane Hendricks, (estimated net worth: $22.3 billion) cofounder of ABC Supply, one of the biggest distributors of roofing, siding and more. She is one of 18 Americans in the top 50, including such high profile women as Oprah Winfrey and Sheryl Sandberg.
Admission to this elite, 50-member club is $2.1 billion, meaning high profile executives and entrepreneurs like SpaceX’s Gwynne Shotwell, Spanx’s Sara Blakely, Kim Kardashian and Taylor Swift simply aren’t rich enough—for now.
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China, including Hong Kong, also has 18 citizens on the list, the richest of whom is Zhong Huijuan. Based in China’s Jiangsu province and reportedly a former chemistry teacher, Zhong started Hansoh Pharmaceuticals in 1995 and got her big break four years later with Gainuo, a first-line drug for advanced lung cancer. Traded in Hong Kong, and boasting $1.7 billion in annual revenue, Hansoh specializes in treatments for oncology, anti-infections and autoimmune diseases. China has long been a leader in terms of women entrepreneurs. “In the Chinese tradition, women are accustomed to wielding significant power and influence,” Ming-Jer Chen, a professor at the University of Virginia and an expert on East-West businesses, wrote in a 2020 article, which also noted that the Chinese word for “wife” is pronounced the same as the word for equal, “qi.”
Nearly half the list – 24 women – hail from Asia-Pacific, followed by North America with 20 and Europe with six. Aussie Melanie Perkins, who cofounded design software firm Canva in 2013, is the youngest of the bunch, at age 38. Next youngest is Russia’s Tatyana Kim (49), a former English teacher who went on to found her nation’s largest online retailer, Wildberries.
These women operate in 14 industries but their most common route to wealth has been technology, with 14 deriving their fortunes from that sector. The richest among this group is Zhou Qunfei (estimated net worth: $10 billion), who chairs Hunan-based Lens Technology, a maker of touch screens whose customers include Apple, Samsung and Tesla. A former migrant factory worker, she founded the precursor to the company in 1993 and has grown the business to more than 136,000 employees and $9.5 billion in annual sales. The next most common industry, with just five, is retail, and includes two cofounders of China’s fast fashion juggernaut Shein.
While more women are moving into entrepreneurship than ever before, there is still a vast gap between men and women in terms of their level of success, at least as measured by their personal net worths. The world’s 50 richest self-made men are worth $3.8 trillion, 14 times as much as the 50 wealthiest females.
Altogether there are 1,920 men across the globe who have built billion-dollar fortunes, more than 18 times as many as women. The planet’s self-made billionaires are worth a collective $11.2 trillion. Men—led by the likes of Elon Musk, Larry Ellison and Mark Zuckerberg—hold $10.8 trillion of that wealth, or 96%, leaving the most successful women around the globe with just 4% of the pie.
Still there is plenty of reason for optimism, starting with the fact that self-made women now make up 3.5% of the entire billionaire set, a small percentage but about 50% higher than their share back in 2017.
The Top 50 World’s Richest Self-Made Women
| RANK | NAME | NET WORTH | CITIZENSHIP | SOURCE OF WEALTH | AGE | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rafaela Aponte-Diamant | $38.8B | Switzerland | Shipping | 80 | |
| 2 | Diane Hendricks | $22.3B | United States | Building supplies | 78 | |
| 3 | Zhong Huijuan | $15.6B | China | Pharmaceuticals | 64 | |
| 4 | Zhou Qunfei | $10B | Hong Kong | Smartphone screens | 55 | |
| 5 | Denise Coates | $8.5B | United Kingdom | Online gambling | 57 | |
| 6 | Judy Faulkner | $7.8B | United States | Healthcare software | 81 | |
| 7 | Wang Laichun | $7.2B | Hong Kong | Electronics components | 58 | |
| 8 | Marian Ilitch & family | $6.9B | United States | Little Caesars Pizza | 92 | |
| 9 | Ling Tang | $6.6B | Canada | Marketing software, mobile games | ||
| 10 | Lynda Resnick | $6.3B | United States | Agriculture | 82 | |
| 11 | Wu Yajun | $6.2B | China | Real estate | 61 | |
| 12 | Thai Lee | $6.1B | United States | IT provider | 66 | |
| 13 | Melanie Perkins | $5.8B | Australia | Software | 38 | |
| 14 | Elizabeth Uihlein | $5.6B | United States | Packaging materials | 79 | |
| 15 | Zhou Chaonan | $4.9B | China | Manufacturing | 64 | |
| 16 | Marina Budiman | $4.8B | Indonesia | Data centers | 63 | |
| 16 | Dewi Kam | $4.8B | Indonesia | Coal | 74 | |
| 18 | Tatyana Kim | $4.6B | Russia | E-commerce | 49 | |
| 18 | Gail Miller & family | $4.6B | United States | Car dealerships | 81 | |
| 20 | Fan Daidi | $4.5B | China | Skincare | 59 | |
| 20 | Fan Hongwei | $4.5B | China | Petrochemicals | 58 | |
| 20 | Jayshree Ullal | $4.5B | United States | Computer networking | 64 | |
| 23 | Eren Ozmen | $4.4B | United States | Aerospace | 66 | |
| 24 | Johnelle Hunt | $3.9B | United States | Trucking | 93 | |
| 25 | Chan Laiwa & family | $3.8B | China | Real estate | 84 | |
| 25 | Meg Whitman | $3.8B | United States | Ebay | 68 | |
| 27 | Maggie Gu | $3.7B | China | Shein | ||
| 27 | Molly Miao | $3.7B | China | Shein | ||
| 29 | Giuliana Benetton | $3.6B | Italy | Fashion retail, investments | 87 | |
| 29 | Peggy Cherng | $3.6B | United States | Fast food | 77 | |
| 31 | Falguni Nayar | $3.4B | India | Retailing | 62 | |
| 32 | Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw | $3.3B | India | Biopharmaceuticals | 72 | |
| 33 | Maritsa Lazari & family | $3.2B | United Kingdom | Real estate | 80 | |
| 34 | Weili Dai | $3.1B | United States | Semiconductors | 63 | |
| 34 | Jian Jun | $3.1B | China | Biomedical products | 61 | |
| 34 | Lam Wai-ying | $3.1B | Hong Kong | Smartphone screens | ||
| 34 | Oprah Winfrey | $3.1B | United States | TV shows | 71 | |
| 38 | Cheng Xue | $3B | China | Soy sauce | 55 | |
| 38 | Zhao Yan | $3B | China | Biotech | 58 | |
| 40 | Safra Catz | $2.9B | United States | Software | 63 | |
| 41 | Pan Dong | $2.6B | Canada | Consumer goods | 60 | |
| 42 | Anna Angelicoussis & family | $2.5B | Greece | Shipping | 69 | |
| 42 | Barbara Banke & family | $2.5B | United States | Wine | 71 | |
| 42 | Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao | $2.5B | Vietnam | Airlines | 55 | |
| 45 | Solina Chau | $2.4B | Hong Kong | Investments | 63 | |
| 45 | Sheryl Sandberg | $2.4B | United States | 55 | ||
| 47 | Rita Tong Liu | $2.3B | Hong Kong | Real estate | 76 | |
| 47 | Ye Qiongjiu | $2.3B | China | Software | 70 | |
| 49 | Susan Ocampo & family | $2.2B | United States | Semiconductors | 67 | |
| 50 | Chu Lam Yiu | $2.1B | Hong Kong | Flavorings | 55 |
METHODOLOGY
To compile net worths, Forbes valued individual assets including stakes in public companies using stock prices from June 13, 2025. We valued private companies by consulting with outside experts and conservatively comparing them with public companies. To be eligible for the list, women have to have substantially made their own fortunes. While none inherited their wealth, some climbed farther and overcame more obstacles to get into the ranks.
Reporting by: Sonya Angraini, Elena Berezanskaya, Justin Birnbaum, Jeremy Bogaisky, Roy Canivel, Maggie Chen, Matt Craig, Kerry Dolan, Matt Durot, Amy Feldman, Julie Goldenberg, Gloria Haraito, Monica Hunter-Hart, John Hyatt, Kyle Khan-Mullins, Luisa Kroll, Sylvan Lebrun, Phoebe Liu, Jemima McEvoy, Maggie McGrath, Andrea Murphy, Anis Muslimin, Lan Anh Nguyen, Chase Peterson-Withorn, Phisanu Phromchanya, Anuradha Raghunathan, Leonard Schoenberger, Rashi Shrivastava, James Simms, Chloe Sorvino, Justin Teitelbaum, Grace Thomas, Giacomo Tognini, Hank Tucker, Francesca Walton, Will Yakowicz, January Yen and Gigi Zamora.
CREDITS
Editorial Operations: Justin Conklin, Francesca Walton
Creative Director: Alicia Hallett-Chan
Senior Art Director: Fernando Capeto
Editorial Design: Yunjia Yuan
Photo Research: Gail Toivanen, Amanda Whitlock
Product Management: Dmitri Slavinsky
Data Engineering: Ken Barney
