With Women’s Equality Day tomorrow, and our company’s focus on finance and financial literacy, we wanted to take this time to shine more light on a specific group of people who we don’t feel is represented nearly as much as they should be in modern media – rich and successful women.
The idea for this blog is simple. There is a lot of discourse in mainstream media about some of the richest men in the world – Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos etc. It’s time to flip the script and tell you about 5 of the richest women in the world in 2022.
Here we go.
1. Francoise Bettencourt Meyers - Estimated Net Worth: 82.5 Billion
The heiress to the L’Oreal cosmetics empire started by her grandfather in 1909, Bettencourt Myers comes in (as of this writing) as 2022’s richest woman. Inheriting the company from her mother, who passed away in 2017, Francoise currently serves as chairwoman of L’Oreal’s holding company and has been very successful as the head of this world-renowned cosmetics company.
2. Alice Walton - Estimated Net Worth: 66 Billion
The daughter of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton, Alice is the second richest woman in the world, having taken in a rough sum of 7.4 Billion dollars in 2021, thanks to Wal-Mart’s stock rising 5%. Alice Walton has a B.A. in Economics from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas and was a former member on the board of trustees for Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, Texas.
3. Mackenzie Scott - Estimated Net Worth: 53 Billion
Mackenzie Scott is probably best known as the ex-wife of Amazon boss Jeff Bezos. On top of being a novelist and philanthropist, Ms. Scott is the third wealthiest woman in the world as a result of her divorce from Jeff Bezos in 2019 after 26 years of marriage. Scott is believed to have played an integral role in the early days of Amazon such as with the company name and business plan but most of her wealth has come from the division of stock assets in her divorce from Bezos.
4. Julia Koch - Estimated Net Worth: 46.4 Billion
Julia Koch is an heiress to the fortune of her husband David, who passed away in 2019. David’s wealth was a result of inheriting his family’s business, Koch Industries, from which Julia inherited a reported 42% stake upon his death.
5. Yang Huiyan - Estimated Net Worth: 33 Billion
The current majority shareholder (55%) of Chinese property development company Country Garden, Yang Huiyan is the heiress to the fortune her father passed on to her prior to 2007’s IPO of Country Garden. It is reported that Huiyan’s father, Yang Guoqiang, transferred over 70% of the company’s shares to her when that transfer occurred.
Each of these powerful women had different journeys to their present-day wealth, but we can assure you that they all started young with their journey from financial literacy to financial prosperity. In that regard, we want your child to be able to do the same.
Check out Explorer Hop's personal finance programs today, where we take your first to twelfth-grade child (we have different programs for different age groups) on a financial literacy journey appropriate for their age, where they learn everything from how to save and budget money to how to trade stocks, manage risk and analyze financial trends.
We hope that you consider signing your child up for one of our countless programs today, as we sincerely believe that doing so is the first step to putting your son or daughter on a similar path as all the wonderful women we highlighted in this blog and gearing them up for long-term financial success as adults.
Happy financial learning and happy Women’s Equality Day!