We Now Have More Female Billionaires Than Ever

The world has more female billionaires than ever, according to Forbes—a fact that, depending on your worldview, might elicit anything from feminist pride to universal envy. Of the 268 newcomers to the 2014 Forbes Billionaires list, 42 are women—a single-year record, and the highest-ever percentage of women billionaires (172 out of 1,645) overall.  “That’s progress," writes Connie Guglielmo in Forbes, "But only a bit." She continues, "Only 32 billionaire women—or 1.9% of all the globe’s billionaires—had a meaningful hand in building their own fortunes, as opposed to inheriting one from a parent or husband.” (But as for the women who were just lucky? It’s a distinction I’m not entirely sure they mind.)

Among some notable newbies on the wealthy list are:

Folorunsho Alakija, 63, Nigeria
Worth: $2.5 Billion, Self-Made
Alakija is Nigeria’s first female billionaire, thanks to her own lucrative oil-producing asset. After being raised by a wealthy man who had eight wives and 52 children, she worked as a secretary in a merchant bank, then went off to England to study fashion design, eventually founding a label, Supreme Stitches, that catered to high-end clients. But her big strike at riches came as a result of the government awarding her an oil-prospecting license for a 620,000-acre plot in 1993. She hired Texaco to assess the potential, creating Famfa Oil, now the bulk of her fortune. “My entry into this [oil] business was God’s own way of leading me down a particular path,” Alakija says.

Denise Coates, 46, U.K.
$1.6 Billion, Self-Made
As a student, Coates worked for her father as a cashier in his betting shops. After training as an accountant, she then took over some of the shops, turning them into successes and then selling them to large bookmaker Coral. In 2000, noticing the rise in online gambling businesses, she bought the domain Bet365.com, after being turned away by traditional funders, launched the website in March 2001. Today she is joint CEO (with her brother) of the online betting firm Bet365, and is the largest shareholder, with a 50.3% stake.

Carrie Perrodo, 63, France


$10 Billion, Inherited
When she met French entrepreneur Hubert Perrodo in the early 1970s, Singapore native Ka Yee (Carrie) Wong was a top model. The entrepreneurs married, with Perrodo forming Perenco, one of the world’s biggest family-owned oil companies, and Carrie launching Carrie Models, which she eventually sold. After Perrodo died in 2006, while hiking in the Alps, Carrie and her three children became heirs to the company, with her son acting as chair.

Aerin Lauder Zinterhofer, 44, U.S.
$1.1 Billion, Inherited
Estée Lauder is the gift that keeps on giving: The cosmetics firm was founded by Zinterhofer’s late grandmother, and now her stake in the $10 billion company's sales is surging. In 2012 she launched her own brand, Aerin, offering makeup, perfume, accessories, jewelry and décor, and runs it, while still remaining image and style director at the mothership, where she’s worked for 20 years. Also not hurting: She’s married to college sweetheart Eric Zinterhofer, a Harvard M.B.A. who cofounded private equity firm Searchlight Capital.

Sheryl Sandberg, 44, U.S.
Worth: $1.05 Billion, Self-Made
"I could play hardball," writes the Facebook COO in “Lean In” regarding her negotiations with company CEO Mark Zuckerberg. It paid off, as the mother of two is now one of the world's youngest self-made women billionaires—largely due to her 12 million shares in the social networking firm. She also sits on the board at the Walt Disney Company.