The World's Richest Self-Made Women

"Only 14 women in the world have amassed personal fortunes of $1 billion or more--just 2% of all self-made billionaires. Why so few? By contrast, 665 men are self-made billionaires including the three richest people in the world.

All of these self-made female billionaires have impressive personal stories, but the dearth of them is itself a story, and begs the question of why so few? One explanation has to do with the fact that while women in the United States start their own businesses at roughly twice the rate of men, they are still playing catch-up in most parts of the world.Women are still at the beginning of their journey to entrepreneurship or higher levels of entrepreneurship, says Sharon Hadary, the former and founding executive director of the Center for Women's Business Research. According to that group, only 20% of all businesses over $1 million are women-owned enterprises.

Then there are more fundamental issues related to personal goals. It seems that men more often define success in monetary terms while women focus on vision and mission. "Men tend to start businesses to grow them to be large and to be the boss while women start them to do something meaningful and to make a difference," notes Hadary, who now consults on women's leadership through her firm Sharon Hadary."