Women Only 12% of Forbes 400 Richest People in 2014
In an article titled "The Richest Women In America 2014", Forbes points out that only 12% of the top 400 richest people in America in 2014 are women with a combined net worth of 273.5 Billion dollars. That's a heck of a lot of money, but when compared to the total net worth of the list, including men, is 2.3 Trillion dollars there is some work yet to do.
47 women make this year’s list. That’s one less than last year, breaking the trend of small increase for every year. An additional five women are on the list as part of a couple, as cofounders of the companies they started.On top of that they also observe that the trend of small increases of women in the list each year has been broken this year as only 47 women are included (vs. 48 last year).
The richest Americans got wealthier again this year, and so did an elite group within The Forbes 400: women. Females account for just 12% of the list, and overall their net worth was lifted by the rising stock market as well. The ten richest women on the list are worth a combined $169.9 billion, up 8.5% from a year ago. Total of $273.5 billion.
The reasons behind these numbers are anyone's guess — and they are likely complex and multifaceted, but they show us that there is work to be done. Not only do we need more women in the list, but we need more women entrepreneurs, more women in tech and science, more women CEOs. There is no simple answer to getting where we need to be, but one way to get there is to encourage more young women to get into these fields and change the culture within our companies and organizations.
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