For decades, women have been fighting to have a seat at the table. Women like Geraldine Weiss, Madam C.J. Walker, and Oprah Winfrey have fought through endless discrimination and restricting societal expectations to forge a path to financial freedom and business success. Because of women like them, women today can pursue their entrepreneurial dreams.
When women find entrepreneurial success, they are more likely to invest back into their families and community while also creating opportunities for women in the workplace. There are remarkable female entrepreneurs throughout the business world who deserve to be celebrated. When we look at their success (and failure), it serves as inspiration and fuel to propel us forward.
We have compiled a list of 11 remarkable female entrepreneurs actively paving new paths for women in business:
- Arianna Huffington
- Taylor Swift
- Sheryl Sandberg
- Melanie Perkins
- Ursula Burns
- Sophia Amoruso
- Sara Blakely
- Anne Wojcicki
- Brynn Putnam
- Mellody Hobson
- Jane Goldman
They come from different backgrounds and serve in different fields, but each one has left a lasting impact on not only their industry but the future of women in business.
The Top 11 Female Entrepreneurs and Women Business Owners
Each of these women has found success despite failures and struggles. None of them are perfect or flawless, yet they have all blazed new trails for others to follow despite their flaws. We have selected women from 5 different key industries.
You might notice that some industries have more notable female entrepreneurs than others. That’s because some industries are more saturated by women leaders than others. It’s a sad reality, but don’t fret. The world is changing, and hopefully, sooner than later, this list will even out.
I want to be very clear in stressing that there are many, many female trailblazers of our past and present. And while we couldn’t list them all here, we wanted to recognize female accomplishments across various industries, primarily from the American sector, to bring inspiration and encouragement to other women and young girls.
We hope that you tailor this list to find your top 10 women that motivate you to blaze the trail in whichever industry and region you find yourself in!
Entertainment and Media
1 – Arianna Huffington
As the founder and former editor of The Huffington Post, CEO of Thrive Global, and successful author of 15 books, Arianna Huffington continues to make a lasting impact on the world. Named one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people and listed as one of the most powerful women by Forbes, she has more than one culture-shaping enterprise under her belt.
Arianna was born in Greece and eventually moved to England at age 16. Soon after, she attended Cambridge University, earning an M.A. in economics. At age 21, she became president of the Cambridge Union, their famed debating society.
In 2005, Huffington founded the media company The Huffington Post, an online hub for news, political and cultural commentary, and satire. The Huffington Post was pivotal in shifting how the public consumes the news.
In 2016, after stepping away from her namesake news site, Arianna launched Thrive Global, a behavior change tech company dedicated to putting an end to the “collective delusion that burnout is the price we pay for success.”
Arianna Huffington is passionate about providing people with the strategies, tools, and information they need to regain control of their lives and fight the epidemic of stress in our world. Her work at The Huffington Post transformed the way we as a society consume news and information, and the work her team is doing at Thrive Global is looking to make an equally valuable impact on health, well-being, and behavior.
2 – Taylor Swift
Whether you are a fan of her music or not, it has become hard to ignore the incredible impact that Taylor Swift has made on the music industry. The catchy tunes and tabloid headlines simply disguise the genius artist that she is. At only 33 years old, she has released 10 studio albums spanning 4 music genres and blessed the world with six world tours. She has 12 Grammys, 40 American Music Awards, and 23 VMAs and in 2023, she officially joined the billionaires club.
She achieved all this despite constant criticism and commentary from the public. Taylor’s life never remains private for very long, and her heartbreak ends up plastered all over the internet and tabloids. However, thanks to her fans, clever marketing, and incredible songwriting, Taylor always turns her tragedy into triumph.
Taylor Swift has been slowly reshaping the music industry by advocating for artist rights, rewriting the album release model, and inspiring new marketing and business practices. In 2014, following the release of her wildly successful album 1989, she removed her entire music catalog from Spotify to protest the streaming service’s “freemium” model’s low royalty payout. Despite criticism, Taylor calmly held firm to her belief that all artists should be paid for their work. Spotify eventually changed their policy and the protest encouraged Apple Music to follow suit to avoid losing her catalog as well.
Swift makes the moves most artists are too afraid to. When the master recordings of her first 6 albums were sold to Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings in 2019, Taylor announced she would be re-recording all of the songs to gain master ownership. No artist had ever attempted a re-recording at this scale, and there was no guarantee that fans would abandon the original recordings for the new Taylor’s Versions. But her fans were devout, and sales of Taylor’s Version’s outshone all of the original versions. Her new versions were successful thanks to her fearless dedication, hard work, and incredible fans.
Noteworthy Icons:
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey turned her career as the highest-rated TV show host into a multimedia empire. She started on the bottom and rose to become an inspiration for men and women around the world.
Reese Witherspoon
Reese Witherspoon is a Hollywood icon and acclaimed actress known for her “girl-next-door” image and her roles in Legally Blonde, Sweet Home Alabama, and Walk the Line. Don’t let that fool you. After personal heartache, her career took a hit and instead of letting it fall to pieces she took it into her own hands and re-wrote the industry for women. Her work with her production company, Hello Sunshine has allowed her to create compelling career opportunities for women that not only pay a fair rate but also showcase the many complexities of women.
Technology
3 – Sheryl Sandberg
Sheryl Sandberg is the former COO of Meta, a passionate philanthropist, and a best-selling author. She was born in Washington, D.C., to an ophthalmologist and a French professor. After moving to Florida when she was only 2 years old, Sheryl’s parents helped create the South Florida Conference on Soviet Jewry, turning their home into a haven for Soviet Jews.
Sheryl had always been taught that it was important to marry young, so when she divorced at age 25, after only a year of marriage, she was worried she would never find lasting love. She didn’t let that fear lead her astray; she pursued her passion and followed her mentor, Larry Summers, to D.C., where she would eventually become his chief of staff.
In 2004, Sheryl’s dream of love and partnership came true, and she married her longtime best friend, Dave Goldberg. They had their son a year later and their daughter 2 years later. She has gone on the record saying,
“The most important career choice you’ll make is who you marry.”
Around the time their daughter was born, Sheryl was approached by Mark Zuckerberg while at a Christmas party. At the time, she was working at Google, but after 6 weeks of meetings and discussions, he offered her the position of chief operating officer of Facebook. Sheryl played an instrumental role in Facebook’s rise to success.
Following the 2016 presidential election, Facebook began to draw heavy scrutiny following claims of political interference. In 2018, the Cambridge Analytica Scandal broke, and the company faced a major fallout. Despite the growing scrutiny, Sandberg managed to hold onto the support of staffers.
This all happened on the heels of an immense tragedy. Sheryl’s husband, David, died suddenly in 2015 while on a family vacation. As part of her healing process, Sheryl wrote an essay on dealing with grief and pivoting when life throws you a curve ball.
Despite all of the heartbreaking challenges and controversy, Sheryl Sandberg continues to be a trail-blazing inspiration for women in business. Her first book, Lean In, was published in 2013 and since then she has dedicated herself to altering the perception of women in business and helping women deal with death, tragedy, and adversity.
4 – Melanie Perkins
Australian billionaire and technology entrepreneur Melanie Perkins is the CEO and co-founder of Canva. At only 36 years old, Perkins is one of the youngest female CEOs in tech and one of Australia’s richest women.
Canva launched in 2013, and since then, it has grown to over 125 million users in over 190 countries. Within 5 years, the company became a “unicorn” startup valued at over $1 billion.
According to an interview with TIME, Perkins has a “two-pronged plan for success.” She needs to build one of the most valuable companies, and then she needs to do as much good in the world as possible. For those unfamiliar with the company, Canva is a design platform that rivals Adobe or Microsoft, but what sets it apart is its mission to prioritize accessibility. Users can make everything from presentation graphics to business card designs or social media graphics/videos.
Her success was not gained by going with the grain. She set herself and her company apart and found a way to pave her own path through the tech world despite living half a world away from the technology hub of the world, Silicon Valley. Perkins told a TIME reporter,
“There’s always been forks in the road [where we could] do what every other company is doing, or just do what feels natural. Every time we do what feels natural, it always ends up being the thing we build on.”
5 – Ursula Burns
Ursula Burns is a shining example of a female entrepreneur who rose out of hardship and became a beacon of success. She grew up in social housing in New York and watched as her mother hustled to put food on the table and send Ursula to Catholic prep school. Ursula excelled in math and science during a time when women weren’t encouraged to pursue STEM fields. She didn’t let this dissuade her, and ultimately, her academic success helped her land an internship with Xerox.
In 2009, after years of hard work, Burns managed to work her way to the top, becoming the first African-American CEO of a Fortune 500 Company and one of only 16 women to reach such a height. Since then, she’s also held senior positions with VEON and Uber, solidifying her as a powerhouse within the business world.
Her success is an inspiration to all young women who dream of reaching far beyond the means they were born with. Ursula literally worked her way from the bottom to the top.
Noteworthy Tech Icons:
Stephanie Lampkin
Former downhill ski racer turned entrepreneur Stephanie Lampkin is the founder and CEO of Blendoor, an enterprise software designed to reduce unconscious bias during hiring. Lampkin is using her 15 years of experience working in the tech industry to create augmented intelligence and people analytics to improve the way we see people.
Whitney Wolfe Herd
Herd got her start in the tech world by co-creating the revolutionary dating app, Tinder. Online dating had been around for a while but Tinder took the world by storm by simplifying the process and creating a cultural phenomenon. But in 2014, Herd left Tinder, filing a sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuit in the process (which was eventually settled outside of court). Soon after leaving Tinder, she co-founded the rival dating app Bumble. The app is designed to empower women to have more control over their dating lives by giving them the opportunity to make the first move. Bumble has expanded into a parent company that encompasses four apps total. It went public in 2021, making Herd one of the youngest self-made female billionaires at only 31 years old.
Susan Wojcicki
If you are not familiar with Susan Wojcicki, you should be. She has played a significant role in implementing culture-shifting technology. While at Google, she co-developed and launched Google Image Search and was the first product manager of Google’s AdSense. For the last 8 years she has led YouTube through massive revenue growth and active user increases. Her leadership and ingenuity have allowed her to pave the way for female CEOs around the world.
Fashion and Retail
6 – Sophia Amoruso
When Sophia was 22, she started a little eBay store named Nasty Gal, selling vintage from her ’87 Volvo. Since then, she has managed to build a $100,000,000 revenue business and write a New York Bestselling book named #GIRLBOSS (you might recognize the name from the Netflix show based on it).
When Sophia started her eBay shop, she was young, lost, and hungry. She wanted to do something great but wasn’t sure where to begin. When inspiration struck, it was her determination and tenacity that propelled her forward. While Nasty Gal may have started as a vintage shop on eBay, almost a decade later, it became a trendy e-commerce retailer competing with brands like H&M and ASOS. Their growth was truly explosive, and in 2015, she was able to hand the CEO role over.
The year before Amoruso’s sale of Nasty Gal was a shaky one. While Netflix was producing a show about her life, lawsuits were casting shadows on her character, and bankruptcy was looming. But that didn’t stop Sophia from pressing forward with her new passion. After the sale of her store, Amoruso poured herself into inspiring young female entrepreneurs and rallying for change.
Today, she supports entrepreneurs and side hustlers to pursue their dreams and build their businesses. She mentors thousands through her businesses, books, and podcasts.
7 – Sara Blakely
Sara Blakely founded and co-owner of Spanx, a women’s clothing brand specializing in undergarments, leggings, swimwear, and maternity wear. In 2014, Blakely was named America’s youngest self-made female billionaire in a Forbes profile, and in 2021, Blackstone bought a majority stake in the company. Blakely’s success as an inventor and entrepreneur did not follow a linear line, though.
Growing up, Sara wanted to follow in her father’s footsteps and become a lawyer. After failing the LSAT, she bounced around from one career to another, everything from stand-up comedy to selling fax machines door-to-door. Then, one evening, she was getting ready for a night out when she decided to cut the feet off a pair of pantyhose and use what remained to prevent panty lines in her white pants. It worked so well that she decided to patent the idea.
She was 27 years old and had little knowledge of fashion or retail, but she decided to invest her life savings, a full $5,000, into starting her own company. It was a risky endeavor, but one Sara was not too afraid to take. Growing up, Sara was encouraged to fail. She was taught that failure is not an outcome but the evidence we tried. We only truly fail when we do not try; Blakely is known for holding weekly “oops meetings,” where staff and leadership (including Sara) share their mishaps and mistakes from the week. They often ended in laughter and anecdotes.
This relentless and fearless attitude helped her push past the countless “no’s” and turn the undergarment industry on its head. She created an entirely new line of undergarments and redefined not only how women dress but also how they view their bodies. While other brands have made versions of her iconic invention, Spanx remains the industry standard.
Noteworthy Icons:
Tory Burch
American fashion designer, businesswoman, and philanthropist Tory Burch started her premium clothing brand in her kitchen and developed it into one of the most formidable fashion empires. Her preppy yet bohemian designs have allowed her to carve out a special place in the fashion world for herself. However, through her five-city initiative, the Tory Burch Foundation Embrace Ambition Series, Tory Burch can challenge unconscious bias and stereotypes while empowering women in the workplace.
Jin Sook Chang
South-Korean immigrant Jin Sook Chang is the cofounder and former chief merchandising officer of the fashion empire Forever 21. Under her and her husband’s watch, the retailer boasted over 800 stores in 57 countries, earning them a place in the billionaire’s club. They started with a 900-square-foot storefront and $11,000 in savings but turned that into $700,000 of revenue in the first year. They sold the company in 2020 after their business began slowly declining. Not all empires can remain strong, but that doesn’t diminish Jin Sook’s impact on the business community. She paved the way for so many immigrants and women in business.
Healthcare and Wellness
8 – Anne Wojcicki
American entrepreneur, California native, and co-founder/CEO of personal genetics company 23andMe, Anne Wojcicki, made the secrets locked within DNA available to the public. Anne graduated in 1996 from Yale University with a B.S. in Biology, but it wasn’t until 2006 that she cofounded 23andMe with biologist Linda Avey. At the time, Wojcicki was exploring how personal genetic testing might be able to influence health care, and from that curiosity, the company was born.
The idea that genetic testing could be available to anyone willing to pay was controversial. The primary concern is the consequences of potentially flawed test results and the risk to one’s genetic privacy. However, the benefits outweighed the concerns, and 23andMe began to grow rapidly.
Their retail saliva genetic test earned them the title of Invention of the Year by Time magazine in 2008, and in 2015, the company completed a 2-year FDA regulatory review, which solidified the accuracy of their tests. The company continues to push the envelope, and as of spring 2023, they began Phase 1 testing for tumor-fighting treatment.
On a more personal level, Anne Wojcicki has been singled out on numerous occasions for her leadership. She has a hunger for innovation and a value for work-life balance that leads to a healthy and empowering workplace. In 2018, Anne partnered with Barbie to inspire young girls in STEM.
9 – Brynn Putnam
Founder and CEO of MIRROR, Brynn Putnam is revolutionizing the fitness industry by bringing the boutique studio experience into the home. For over a decade, Putnam has been a well-respected figure in the world of fitness.
She started her career as a highly trained professional ballerina for the New York City Ballet. Brynn spent most of her life training, pushing her body to its limits. She worked at some of the nation’s best gyms and boutique fitness studios. In 2010, she took the teachings and techniques she’d acquired from some of the best trainers and physiologists nationwide and applied them to launch her chain of studios, the Refined Method.
After noticing how her Refine members enjoyed using the mirrors she installed throughout the studio, she was inspired to create a new kind of fitness instructor. Despite being severely pregnant, Putnam set out to build a new type of home fitness equipment – one that wouldn’t become an eye-sore in your home.
It took many, many rough attempts, but eventually, Mirror came to be. MIRROR allows users to experience the best training and fitness instruction in their homes. This became especially popular in 2020 when the pandemic forced everyone indoors. Mirror was second to Peloton as the breakout fitness product of the pandemic. In June 2020, she sold MIRROR to Lululemon for $500 million.
Noteworthy Icons:
Kayla Itsines
Australian personal trainer, author and entrepreneur Kayla Itsines is a multi-tasking mogul. She is dedicated to helping women around the world feel confident and strong through the multiple books, apps, and programs she has had a hand in creating. She has built a significant fitness empire with a reported net worth around $70 million to date.
Mel Robbins
Mel Robbins is best known for her books, The 5 Second Rule and The High 5 Habit, her TEDx talk “How to Stop Screwing Yourself Over,” and her podcast, where she shares fun, relatable stories, and science-backed tools. While Mel could also be placed in the entertainment category, we see Mel as making the biggest impact in the wellness field. Whether through her books, podcast, or social media, Mel provides her audience with the tools and inspiration they need to live their best lives.
Historical Icon – Madam C.J. Walker (1867-1919)
As the first black female millionaire in America, Madam C.J. Walker was a true trailblazer for everyone who followed. She made her fortune selling homemade haircare products for black women. Her success paved the way for black men and women and helped all women find success as philanthropists, educators, and entrepreneurs.
Finance and Investment
10 – Mellody Hobson
Mellody Hobson is the President of Chicago-based mutual fund company and investment management firm Ariel Capital Management, LLC. She began working for the company straight out of Princeton after receiving her AB from the School of International Relations and Public Policy.
For nearly 2 decades, Hobson has served as Ariel’s president, and currently, she also serves as Chairman of the Board of Starbucks Corporation and is the director of JPMorgan Chase. She has also been the Chairman of DreamWorks Animation (2004-2016), where she helped with the company’s sales, and sat on the board of Estee Lauder Companies (2005-2018).
In addition to her inspiring business accomplishments, Hobson has served multiple civic, non-profit, and professional organizations working to create change. She works to improve education for Chicago teens as the director of the Chicago Public Education Fund and chair of After School Matters. She has also served on various committees, including the Executive Committee of the Investment Company Institute’s Board of Governors, the George Lucas Education Foundation, World Business Chicago, and the Economic Club of Chicago.
11 – Jane Goldman
America’s only female billionaire real estate investor. She is the head of Solil Management, a real estate firm that she owns with her three siblings. As the youngest daughter of one of New York’s biggest landlords, she now oversees a portfolio featuring over 400 properties, including Upper East Side apartments, Olympic Tower, and the Cartier Mansion in Midtown Manhattan. The family even owns a 17% stake in the World Trade Center development.
After her father’s death in 1987, her mother received a third of his estate while Jane and her brother, Allan, took on the task of managing the remaining real estate assets. Together with their two sisters, Diane and Amy, they managed to expand their father’s real estate empire. In recent years, Allan has maintained his position as co-chair but takes a back seat, trusting Jane to operate the firm. Amy and Diane serve as senior advisers.
Noteworthy Icons:
Tammy Jones
Co-founder and CEO of Basis Investment Group, LLC, Tammy Jones is paving new paths for women in the real estate investment world. Basis is a multi-strategy commercial real estate private equity investment platform through which Jones is able to utilize her 25 years of experience. Ms. Jones has carved out a well-respected space for herself in the real estate investment world and in doing so, she is creating opportunities for women like herself to follow suit.
Barbara Corcoran
You might recognize Barbara Corcoran from the hit TV show Shark Tank, on which she appears as one of the shark investors. But outside the shark tank, Corcoran is known as an American businesswoman, investor, and columnist. She founded a real estate brokerage company, The Corcoran Group, which sold for $66 million in 2001. Now she shares her tips and advice to young investors and entrepreneurs through her many speaking engagements and publications.
Historical Icon: Geraldine Weiss “The Grand Dame of Dividends”
In 1966, after facing multiple rejections from investment firms, Geraldine Weiss made a name for herself by starting her investment newsletter, signing each one “G. Weiss” to avoid gender bias. She managed to keep her true name a secret for eleven years, at which point she’d already established a successful track record. Her value-based, dividend-oriented stock-picking strategy outshined all others in the day and earned her outstanding success for over thirty-six years. Even though she has been retired since 2002, her strategies continue to wield success.
4 Key Factors Contributing to Their Success
1. Innovation and Vision
While these women have all managed to reach incredible heights in their fields, none of them did so by following the easy path laid out in front of them. They have each made an impact on this world by actively choosing to look outside the box. They saw the flaws in our world and sought to change them. They allowed themselves to dream big and believe those dreams can come true.
These women found success by setting themselves apart and forging their paths. Look at Melanie Perkins; she followed her instincts, and it took her down a unique path that set her and her company apart in the tech world.
2. Overcoming Challenges:
None of these women found success easily, and even when they had it, they had to fight to keep it. While the idea of women in business is much more widely accepted, there are still challenges and barriers. These women, like so many others, face constant biases that restrict their access to funding and opportunities.
Many of these women faced the greatest career setbacks when their personal lives took a hit. Sandberg faced a steady stream of scandal and allegations the same year her beloved husband died suddenly. In both cases, these women chose to shift their focus. They allowed their tragedy and hardship to reshape them into a better version of themselves.
3. Networking and Mentorship
One of the things that set these incredible women apart is their eagerness to support fellow women. They recognize the importance of building a solid network of peers and finding mentors who will encourage and empower you to succeed. As tempting as it is to try and go after your dreams solo, having people around you who support and challenge you will propel you further than you could ever go on your own.
The women featured on this list know that. They recognize that they wouldn’t have gotten where they are without the women who came before them, and now, most of them make a conscious effort to use their status to help other women. Sophia Amoruso started #GIRLBOSS to help female entrepreneurs, and Sheryl Sandberg wrote Lean In and started the Lean In movement to support women in business.
4. Resilience and Determination:
As mentioned above, the women on our list found success despite many personal and professional challenges. No matter what life threw at them, they took it and turned it around, ultimately making themselves stronger in the process. They never let the world dictate who they can be. They held fast and never gave up.
Ursula Burns grew up in social housing, but her mother worked hard so Ursula could have the education she deserved, and Ursula didn’t let that education go to waste. She got an internship at Xerox, and with hard work and dedication, she worked her way to the top.
Reese Witherspoon rose to success early, but just as she was reaching the peak, her personal life was shattered, and she was forced to pivot. Reese could have easily retreated into the shadows of Hollywood, fading out of the limelight, but instead, she decided to take ownership of her life and career. Rather than accepting the meager roles available, she created the roles she wanted for herself and her fellow actresses. Her resilience paid off, and her career took on a new life.
The Future of Female Entrepreneurship
For decades, women have been fighting for a seat at the table. They battled through discrimination, societal expectations, and legal challenges. Today, women continue to fight for their place, but the battle is far less treacherous. Societal roles and expectations have shifted and continue to do so, and so has the outlook for women in business.
Women-led businesses are growing in number, and while we are still far from equal, the path towards success is much less turbulent. While women still face gender biases and sexism, which can affect their growth, businesswomen are gaining more and more support today. Industries such as retail, beauty, and wellness are welcoming female entrepreneurs, and doors are opening in the tech and finance worlds as well.
The fact is the future of entrepreneurship is centered around diversity and inclusion. With more diversity comes fresh perspectives and innovation and a future where the female perspective is acknowledged and celebrated.
Key Takeaways and Lessons for Aspiring Entrepreneurs
There are countless lessons that aspiring female entrepreneurs can glean from the lives of these 11 incredible women. If we were to boil them down to a few key points, these would be them:
- Don’t be afraid to take risks and pave your path. Innovation and change only happen when you are willing to fall on your face.
- You can’t predict the future or control the results; the only thing you can control is your response.
- Be ready to pivot. Don’t be so glued to a single path that you are unable to shift with the tide.
- Follow your instincts, even when they seem against the grain.
- We are all in this together. Build your network. Look to leaders that you admire and be willing to support those who need it.
The future for women in business is bright, thanks to the incredible women who fought tirelessly to get us to this point. Women need to support each other as they continue pressing forward. Let these remarkable female entrepreneurs be beacons of hope and inspiration.
Photo Credits:
Arianna Huffington photo: By David Shankbone – Own work, CC BY 3.0
Taylor Swift photo: By iHeartRadioCA, CC BY 3.0
Oprah Winfrey photo: By American Academy of Arts & Sciences
Reese Witherspoon photo: By dtstuff9, CC BY-SA 2.0
Sheryl Sandberg photo: By World Economic Forum from Cologny, Switzerland – Women in Economic Decision-making, CC BY-SA 2.0
Melanie Perkins photo: By Melanie Perkins, CC BY-SA 2.0
Ursula Burns photo: From Britannica, courtesy of Xerox Corporation
Susan Wojcicki photo: By TechCrunch, CC BY 2.0
Whitney Wolfe Herd photo: By TechCrunch – 775208326GB00030_TechCrunch, CC BY 2.0
Stephanie Lampkin photo: By Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship
Sophia Amoruso photo: By Tech Crunch – [1], CC BY 2.0
Sara Blakely photo: By Gillian Zoe Segal – Self-photographed, CC BY-SA 4.0
Tory Burch photo: By User:Alms1119, CC BY 3.0
Jin Sook Chang photo: By Ethan Pines For Forbes
Anne Wojcicki photo: By TechCrunch, CC BY 2.0
Brynn Putnam photo: Insider.com
Kayla Itsines photo: By FLIPP Management – SWEAT WITH KAYLA on Vimeo at 0:07, cropped, brightened, CC BY 3.0
Mel Robbins photo: By Famous People Today
Madam C.J. Walker photo: By Scurlock Studio (Washington, D.C.) (photographers). – Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of American History : Archives Center. P.O. Box 37012 [1], Public Domain
Mellody Hobson photo: By Joi Ito, CC BY 2.0
Jane Goldman photo: Photo courtesy of the Goldman Family on Forbes
Tammy Jones photo: By Basis Investment Group
Barbara Corcoran photo: By Philip Romano – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0
Geraldine Weiss photo: By The New York Times
