Being rich isn’t as easy as you think.
Don’t get us wrong, bring a billionaire comes with decided perks, but the ridiculously wealthy often carry the weight of money-making empires on their shoulders. One wrong move, and those precious riches could all be gone.
There’s thirteen women who can tell you all about that pressure. Forbes just released it’s annual list of the 500 richest people in the world. Out of the Top 100 though, only 13 of them are female. As in, a baker’s dozen. While the men who made the Top 100 are collectively worth an astounding $1,929 BILLION. The women? Only $298.9 billion—just 15.5 per cent of the net worth of their male counterparts. Of course, we’re still talking about billions of dollars here, but that’s quite the discrepancy. How did these women manage to break the mould and accumulate their riches? Check out the gallery below to find out:
CHRISTY WALTON & FAMILY
Net worth: $41.7 billion
Age: 60
# of kids: 1
The wealthiest woman in the world for five out of the past six years, Christy is a widow of John T. Walton—one of the sons of the founder of Wal-Mart. She inherited $18.2 billion after John's death in 2005, and continues to earn profit from the business today.
ALICE WALTON
Net worth: $39.4 billion
Age: 65
# of kids: 0
Also an heir to the Wal-Mart fortune, Alice's father Sam founded the retailer back in 1962. She's also dabbled in political spending though, mostly to the Republican Party.
JACQUELINE MARS
Net worth: $26.6 billion
Age: 75
# of kids: 3
Jacqueline along with two brothers own candy maker Mars. Even though they all sit on the board of directors, the family doesn't play a role in its day-to-day operations. Their grandfather Frank started the company in 1911 out of his kitchen. Jacqueline, however, is a trustee of the U.S. Equestrian Team and sits on the board of directors of the National Sporting Library.
MARIA FRANCA FISSOLO & FAMILY
Net worth: $23.4 billion
Age: 97
# of kids: 2
Widow of Michele Ferrero (the man behind the iconic company that produces Nutella, Kinder chocolates and Tic-Tac mints), Maria and his family inherited his fortune after his death in 2014. Ferrero's father had started the company out of Alba, Italy during WWII. With rationed cocoa, he turned to the region's abundant supply of hazelnuts to create a spread that would eventually become Nutella. The rest, as they say, is history.
BEATE HEISTER & KARL ALBRECHT JR.
Net worth: $21.3 billion
Age: 63
# of kids: 0
The children of Karl Albrecht Sr., Beate and Karl Jr. took over the family's corner grocery store in Germany and were the brains behind a discount revolution in local retailing. Basically, their idea was to implement a low-cost, no-frills model similar to the one in Wal-Mart. The company is known to be highly secretive.
LAURENE POWELL JOBS & FAMILY
Net worth: $19.5 billion
Age: 51
# of kids: 3
Widow of Steve Jobs, Laurene is now the founder of Emerson Collective and College Track—both of which are programs aimed at benefiting youth. In fact, Emerson Collective and its partners recently announced a $50 million commitment to design better high school programs. The Laurene Powell Jobs Trust is also the largest individual shareholder of Disney.
ANNE COX CHAMBERS
Net worth: $17 billion
Age: 95
# of kids: 3
Surviving daughter of Cox Enterprises founder James M. Cox, Anne is the majority owner of a privately-held media empire which rakes in about $17 billion in annual revenues. The empire includes Cox Communications, Cox Media Group and Cox Automotive. Chambers was an ambassador to Belgium during the reign of President Jimmy Carter and also holds the French Legion of Honor title.
SUSANNE KLATTEN
Net worth: $16.8 billion
Age: 52
# of kids: 3
Germany's richest woman can credit her wealth to the 12.6 per cent stake she inherited in automaker BMW from her late father, Herbert Quandt. But the M.B.A. holder is also credited with helping transform German-based Altana AG into a world-class pharmaceutical corporation, after she inherited 50 per cent of the company.
JOHANNA QUANDT
Net worth: $13.9 billion
Age: 88
# of kids: 2
Mother of Susanne Klatten, she was the wife of late German BMW executive Herbert Quandt. While Johanna quit the automaker's supervisory board in 1997, she still owns almost 17 per cent of the company. BMW, even despite worldwide economic challenges, was still able to make record deliveries to customers in 2013. Johanna was also recognized by the German government in 2009 for the cultural and social contributions she made in support of journalism and education.
IRIS FONTBONA & FAMILY
Net worth: $13.5 billion
Age: 72
# of kids: 3
Iris inherited mining, beverage and other businesses after her husband Andronico Luksic died. But she and her children also control Antofagasta Plc, which trades on the London Stock Exchange and owns copper mines in Chile. Plus she has the majority stake in a Chilean conglomerate active in beer, banking, manufacturing and more
ABIGAIL JOHNSON
Net worth: $13.4 billion
Age: 53
# of kids: 2
Johnson replaced her father Edward "Ned" Johnson III as CEO of Fidelity in 2014. It's the second-largest mutual-fund company in the U.S., with nearly 2 trillion in assets under management. But she started working with the firm before she even began college, first starting out as a gopher who would take orders from customers by phone. But now she has an MBA from Harvard, and owns an estimated 24 per cent stake in the company.
GINA RINEHART
Net worth: $12.3 billion
Age: 61
# of kids: 4
Queen of the global iron-ore trade, Australian mining heiress Gina Rinehart controls Hancock Prospecting, which recently added oil and gas to its portfolio. In 2014, she inked her biggest deal yet: $7.2 billion in funding from a group of global banks and credit agencies to develop one of the largest iron-ore mines in the world.
