INQUISITR.COM / News & Politics

Richest American Women Trail Men [Video]

By Julia Sutter
Published on: 10:46 PST, Sep 30, 2014

The richest American women were announced in the 33rd annual listing of the Forbes 400, a ranking of the wealthiest Americans.

While both men and women are represented on the list, women trail men in almost every category. According to Forbes, the richest American women make up a paltry 12 percent of the list, while their male counterparts account for a whopping 88 percent. The highest ranked woman, in sixth place, is Christy Walton worth $38 billion. She has less than half the net worth of perennial first ranked Bill Gates, who sits on a pile of $81 billion.

All the women on the list are worth a combined value of $273.5 billion. That’s a mere 60 percent of just the first ten men on the list, who total up with a combined net worth of $455.1 billion.

Capital New York quoted Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, as saying, “a dramatic expression that something is wrong with our system. People at the very top are doing better than ever before.”

Eight of the richest American women are considered “self-made.” They are Diane Hendricks (#151, $3.6 billion), Doris Fisher (#167, $3.3 billion), Oprah Winfrey (#190 with $3 billion), Judy Faulkner (#261, $2.4 billion), Elaine Wynn (#261, $2.4 billion), former eBay CEO Meg Whitman (#324 with $2 billion) and Johnelle Hunt (#324, $2 billion).

While there were 27 newcomers added to the list, only three of them are women. They are Elizabeth Holmes (#111, $4.5 billion), Karen Johnson Boyd (#287, $2.3 billion) and Josephine Louis (#291, $2.2 billion).

Four women are no longer considered among the top 400 wealthiest Americans and were dropped from the list. Wilma Tisch was dropped because her $1.45 billion is below the new cut-off limit, which was raised to $1.55 billion. Gayle Cook transferred her $5.8 billion stake in the Cook Group to her son, Carl. Elaine Marshall didn’t make the list this year because Forbes now attributes her 14 percent stake in Koch Industries to a larger group of relatives. Joyce Raley Teel, sole owner of the privately held Raley’s Family Of Fine Stores, is no longer on the list because Forbes has changed its estimate of the value of that company, reducing her valuation to $1.1 billion.

Share this article: Richest American Women Trail Men [Video]
More from Inquisitr