Women hold only 11% of CEO positions at Fortune 500 companies, despite making up half of the global population. That gap is real, and it’s still closing too slowly.
The women on this list didn’t wait for the playing field to level out. They built something anyway, and in doing so, made the path clearer for everyone who comes after them.
Here are seven highly successful business women blazing the trail for future generations.
Taylor Swift is a force of nature. Swift’s success comes from her business savvy, eye for marketing, and willingness to invest in herself.
Her “Eras Tour,” which paid homage to the singer-songwriter’s illustrious career, brought joy to hundreds of thousands of attendees and boosted the U.S. economy by nearly $5 billion. We can’t wait to see what she does next (assuming we can get tickets).
Growing up under a communist regime, Zhang Xin’s life was dull, monotonous, and gray. Gray buildings. Gray uniforms. There were even sandstorms that turned the sky gray. Xin and the company she cofounded, property developer SOHO China, are credited with bringing lights and colors to the city of Beijing.
After becoming “the woman who built Beijing,” Xin went on to found the New York-based film production company Closer Media.
As an engineering student, Debbie Sterling was outnumbered by her male counterparts. Asking herself, “why should boys have all the fun?”, Sterling set out to change the status quo.
Enter GoldieBlox: an innovative toy company with a mission to ignite girls’ passion for science and engineering. GoldieBlox has been a smash hit, becoming the first small business to be featured in a Super Bowl ad.
Sara Blakely was looking for the perfect undergarment to pair with white pants. Armed with only a pair of scissors, she made her own from a pair of pantyhose. From that moment of invention came SPANX.
SPANX now has retail shops around the world, and Blakely can be counted among the world’s youngest self-made female billionaires.
Jessica Alba was at the top of her acting career when, in 2008, she gave birth to her daughter Honor and decided to take her life in a new direction.
Alba launched The Honest Company in 2012, a wellness brand specializing in eco-friendly products. Alba was willing to pivot in her career and dared to imagine a better life than the one she had.
Winfrey was born poor in rural Mississippi. From her humble beginnings, she built a media and business empire, developing and hosting “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” starring in “The Color Purple,” and creating multimedia production company Harpo Productions. She remains an inspiration and a powerful force across multiple industries.
Whitney Wolfe Herd created not one tech giant but two, cofounding Tinder and later its rival, Bumble.
With Bumble, Wolfe Herd wanted to change the gender dynamics of dating, inspired by the advances women had made in the workforce. She took the dating app public in 2021, making her the youngest female CEO to take a U.S. company public.
The women on this list came from different industries, backgrounds, and starting points. What they shared was a willingness to take what they knew (or what they wanted to know) and build something with it.
A business degree won’t hand you a billion-dollar company, but it gives you the foundation to make smarter decisions, navigate challenges, and lead with confidence. UTPB’s AACSB-accredited College of Business offers fully online programs at both the undergraduate and graduate level—built for people who are ready to get moving without putting their lives on hold.
Undergraduate options:
Graduate options:
Take the lead. Apply to one of UTPB’s online business programs and find the right fit for where you want to go.
Sources:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/melissahouston/2023/12/01/what-taylor-swift-teaches-women-about-business/?sh=6e5aada2310a
https://www.etonline.com/jessica-alba-shares-why-she-stopped-acting-at-the-top-of-my-career-162904
https://goldieblox.com/pages/our-story
https://spanx.com/pages/about-us
https://closermedia.com/xinzhang
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/11/from-factory-worker-to-real-estate-billionaire-soho-chinas-zhang-xin.html
https://www.businessinsider.com/meet-bumble-ceo-whitney-wolfe-herd-net-worth-family-ipo-2020-9
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