The country's most successful women have found dozens of ways to prosper in 2024.

It was a record-breaking year for these queens of capitalism, as their combined fortunes soared by nearly one-fourth to $154 billion. billion. Hi everybody, I'm Brittany Lewis, a reporter here at Forbes.

Joining me now is my colleague Assistant Managing Editor Carrie Dole.

Carrie, thank you so much for joining me.

Thanks, Brittany for joining me. Thanks, Brittany, for having me.

Of course, I first have to extend a big congratulations.

Forbes just released its 10th annual America's richest self-made women list. So big

congrats to you I know that's a huge undertaking but first I want you to

answer how does one qualify for the list? So what by-made women, what we mean is somebody who did not inherit their fortune.

So we include people who founded their own companies.

We include entertainers like Taylor Swift and Saline Dion.

We also include people who maybe didn't found their own companies,

but were hired into positions at

companies like Facebook or eBay, Meg Whitman, former CEO of eBay, Cheryl

Sandberg, former CEO of Facebook's,

books like that are on our list.

I know that there is a number system

to show just how self-made a woman is.

Can you describe that a little deeper there?

So for our self-made scores, we look at just how self-made people are.

Some people came from poverty.

I mean, people like Oprah who came from nothing, right? So they get a 10.

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