An inside look at the launching point for these women entrepreneurs, executives and entertainers.
Not all fortunes are created from the same starting point. This year, a small number of the 100 members of Forbes’ 2025 list of America’s Richest Self-Made Women were born into wealthy families. An even smaller number grew up in poverty and battled adversity. Just over half come from middle-class backgrounds.
As part of our reporting on how these inspiring entrepreneurs, executives and entertainers built their careers, we delved into list members’ histories, taking into account their family’s socioeconomic status and any setbacks or advantages that shaped their paths to success, and using that information assigned each member a self-made score to indicate how far they’ve come on their climb to the top.
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We initially created this scoring system in 2014 for the annual Forbes 400 list of wealthiest Americans, with scores from 1 to 5 denoting that an individual inherited their wealth, and scores from 6-10 reflecting degrees of self-made. For our list of self-made women, by definition no members have inherited their fortunes, so we use the scores from 6 to 10 to indicate that they’ve built their own fortunes.
Photos, From Left: Daniela Amodei, Selena Gomez, Gwynne Shotwell. Illustration by Ben Kirchner for Forbes
America’s Richest Self-Made Women
Forbes’ Ranking Of The Country’s Most Successful Women Entrepreneurs, Executives And Entertainers
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Here are what the scores mean and a few examples of each:
6:
Hired hand who didn’t start the business. This year, 12 women amassed their wealth through well-compensated executive positions, including Jayshree Ullal, president and CEO of Artista Networks, and Dana Emery, the CEO of asset management firm Dodge and Cox. They made their own money—but working for someone else.
7:
Self-made who got a head start from wealthy parents and an affluent background. Kim Kardashian and JPMorganChase executive Mary Callahan Erdoes are two of the ten list members who scored a 7 this year. Kardashian’s late father Robert was best known for being O.J. Simpson’s defense attorney, while Erdoes’ dad was a partner at an investment banking firm.
8:
Self-made who grew up in a middle-class or upper-middle-class background. Just over half of the list–52 women in all (vs. 54 last year)–fall into this category, including pop stars Taylor Swift and Celine Dion, and defense firm General Dynamics’ CEO Phebe Novakovic.
9:
Self-made who was raised in a working-class environment. This year, 20 list members came from such a background, one more than in 2024. Diane Hendricks of roofing giant ABC Supply grew up as one of nine sisters on a dairy farm in Wisconsin. Selena Gomez’s parents were just 16 when she was born in Grand Prairie, Texas; after their divorce five years later, her mother had to work three jobs to keep the family afloat.
10:
Self-made who grew up poor and faced significant hurdles. Only four list members–all in the entertainment industry–received a 10 this year. Oprah Winfrey was born to a teenage mother in rural Mississippi and has been public about the abuse she faced as a child. Rihanna, Barbra Streisand and Dolly Parton also grew up in poverty.
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