How To Reject Toxic Positivity | The World’s Richest Woman Is… | And More

Plus: 11 Times Fewer March Madness Brackets Completed For Women’s Tournament, But There’s Still Cause For Optimism

This week, we at Forbes released one of our flagship features: the list of the world’s billionaires. There are 2,668 people on this year’s ranking (our 36th annual edition), and they are worth a collective $12.7 trillion—$400 billion less than in 2021. 

As is unfortunately usual for these types of lists, there are few women among these billionaires. Just 327, in fact, down one from 328 last year. Though if you’re looking for a silver lining here, these 327 women (including those who share their fortune with their spouse, child or sibling) are worth a collective $1.56 trillion, up from $1.53 trillion last year.

While the richest woman in the world is the same person it was in 2021 (and for more on her, keep reading this note), I’m most excited by some of the new names to this year’s list: Rihanna, whose beauty empire makes her Barbados’ first billionaire; Melanie Perkins, the 34-year-old cofounder of design startup Canva; and Melinda French Gates, who is being listed as a billionaire in her own right following her divorce from Bill Gates in mid 2021.

Cheers,
Maggie

ICYMI: Stories From The Week

In 22 of 250 U.S. metropolitan areas, young women now make between 100% and 120% of what their male counterparts earn—a small but positive sign the gender pay gap is slowly narrowing.

Bitcoin developer Lightning Labs, founded and led by Elizabeth Stark, raised $70 million from early investors in Tesla and SpaceX to help turn the first major blockchain into a network capable of transacting trillions of dollars in volume annually, making it a competitor to the likes of Visa.

President Joe Biden has appointed actress and producer Taraji P. Henson to his board of advisors on historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). 

A group of six attorneys general, led by New York AG Letitia James, sent a letter to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell Wednesday saying they are prepared to use the "full weight of our authority" to investigate the league after reports surfaced that female employees were mistreated, in what could be the latest legal trouble for the NFL.

New York City had set May 15 as the deadline for its pay transparency law, which would have required all job postings to list the minimum and maximum salary for the position. But now, amid pushback from businesses, the New York City Council is considering making significant changes to the law and delaying enforcement by six months to November.

Check List

#1: Know when it’s time to call it quits. While there’s nothing wrong with being an optimist and looking on the bright side of a situation, positivity has its limits. These are the indicators that it might be time to reject toxic positivity and make a change.

#2: Get yourself a scholarship. Wharton’s latest MBA class is more than 50% women for the first time in the school’s history, but there’s still a long way to go to achieve gender parity at business schools around the world. Here are some resources for women looking to study business (N.B. many of these happen to be in Europe).

#3: Don’t play small. There are certain money mindsets that can hold you back in your ability to grow a business or create wealth. One of those is having small goals, which can result in small results or small wealth. Don’t be afraid to make your mindset and dreams as big and lofty as possible.

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