Women play a very important role in today's society, but when people usually discuss the rich list, they always see men. There are reportedly 328 female billionaires worldwide as of 2021, so who are the five richest women? How did they get such a huge amount of money?
5th Place: Miriam Adelson
With a worth of $37 billion (about 236 billion yuan), Miriam Adelson is the richest person in Israel and the 36th richest person in the world. Born in Tel Aviv in 1945, Miriam received a Bachelor of Science degree in Microbiology and Genetics and a medical degree from Tel Aviv University, where she worked as a physician for a time and founded a drug abuse center and research clinic in 1993. Of course, Miriam can't make $37 billion just by being a doctor, and she's also the widow of Sheldon Adelson, CEO and chairman of Las Vegas Sands Casino.
In 1988, Sheldon acquired a casino in Las Vegas and gradually transformed it into a multinational giant, and before his death, he was already one of the 20 richest people in the United States. In January 2021, Sheldon died at the age of 87, leaving her widow with a $48 billion financial empire and helping her rank fifth in the world's richest women list.
4th Julia Koch
With a value of $43 billion (about 274 billion yuan), Julia Koch is the 27th richest billionaire in the world. Born in 1962, Julia spent her early years working on a farm and later in her parents' furniture store. In the 1980s, Julia moved to New York to work as an assistant to fashion designer Adolf. Indeed, being an assistant may also make $43 billion, and she is also on the list by inheriting the legacy of her deceased husband. Julia's first husband was David Cox, the seventh-richest man in the United States at the time of his lifetime, with a net worth of $53.4 billion . In 1991, David and Julia met through blind dates, dating for a few years and then marrying in 1996. In 2019, after David's death, Julia, 79, and her three children inherited David's 42 percent stake in Koch Industries, making her fourth richest woman in the world.
3rd Place: Mackenzie Scott
Mackenzie Scott is worth $59 billion (about 376 billion yuan), ranking 22nd on the world's richest list. She is also the only woman on this list who has not inherited property. Although, known for his marriages and high-profile divorces with notable billionaires, Jeff Bezos Mackenzie, who was born in California in 1970, has an interesting personal life. She has always been an avid writer, claiming to have been writing since she was 6 years old. McKenzie received a bachelor's degree in English from Princeton University in 1992, studied under Nobel laureate Toni Morrison in 2005, won an American Book Award for his debut film The Trial of Luther Albright, and published a second novel in 2013.
In 1993, MacKenzie met Jeff Bezos as one of Amazon's first employees, but the two divorced in 2019. As part of the divorce settlement, Bezos transferred her 25 percent stake in Amazon to MacKenzie, after which she pledged to donate at least half of her wealth to charity. In 2020 alone, she has donated up to $2.8 billion worth of charitable gifts. However, MacKenzie is so generous that I don't know if I will have a chance to be on the list next year?
Second Alice Walton
Alice Walton is worth $66 billion (about 420 billion yuan). Born in 1949 to a Walmart family in Newport, Arkansas, Alice is one of the heirs of the Walmart Group. As a young woman, Alice worked as an equity analyst, money manager, and president of an investment bank. But somehow she declined to work for Walmart and is now working only on her own art museum.
1st Prize: Francoise Bettencourt Myers
François Bettencourt Miles is worth $82.9 billion (about 528 billion yuan), ranking 12th on the world's richest list. François's huge wealth comes from the global cosmetics giant L'Oréal Group, and she is the third generation of L'Oréal Group's heirs. François inherited wealth from her mother, Lillian Henriette Charlotte Bettencourt, the richest woman in the world at the time, but the inheritance was not so smooth, and she filed criminal proceedings against her mother's closest friend. François has also been committed to philanthropy, most notably donating $226 million (about 1.4 billion yuan) in 2019 to renovate the burned-out Notre Dame Cathedral. Today, François is also president and founder of the Pétangu Schuler Foundation, investing hundreds of millions of dollars in medical research, art education, and improving livelihoods, and regularly providing grants and awards for excellence in these fields.
Today, the total value of the world's richest women is $1.53 trillion (about 9.7 trillion yuan), but this group is often overlooked. As we move towards a more egalitarian society, I believe we will see more and more women becoming billionaires, and women can really hold up half the sky.