Women continue to elevate and thrive as business owners and entrepreneurs.
By Cy White, Illustrations by Jessica Wetterer
52
In January 2023, the Fortune 500 listed 52 women-identified CEOs, a 18% increase from last year’s count of 44. This is the first time in the list’s 68-year history that women have exceeded 10% of the CEOs on the Fortune 500.
$4.8 billion
On Forbes’ annual list of America’s Richest Self-Made Women, Austin’s Thai Lee is listed fifth, with a net worth of $4.8 billion. This marks the fourth consecutive year the SHI International CEO and co-founder has been on the Forbes list.
8
On this same list of America’s Richest Self-Made Women, eight of those women are from Austin. That list includes August 2020 cover woman Lisa Su (#34), August 2006 cover woman Kendra Scott (#47), April 2016 cover woman Whitney Wolfe Heard (#52) and November 2020 cover woman Julia Cheek (#92).
$6.5 billion
According to Merchant Maverick’s annual list of Top 10 States for Women-Led Startups, Texas is ranked fourth for the amount of money invested for women in the last five years. Venture capital has raised $6.5 billion for women-owned businesses.
2
According to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), Texas is ranked second behind Hawaii in its list of states with the most BIPOC-owned small businesses. The SBA found that of the 3 million small businesses in Texas, 1.1 million of them are owned by Black, Brown and Indigenous people of color.