A ‘Self-Made’ Billionaire? Gender and the Myth of Meritocratic Wealth

This research note critically examines the concept of ‘self-made’ wealth, drawing on data from the Forbes 400 rich list (2014–2023). The ‘self-made’ narrative, we argue, obscures structural factors that shape wealth accumulation and serves meritocratic discourses that justify wealth inequality. Our empirical analysis reveals that men are disproportionately labelled as self-made, while women are more frequently labelled as heirs. We argue that this reflects a persistent gender ideology that fails to recognize women’s contributions to wealth creation. We propose using new categories like ‘dynastic’ and ‘non-dynastic’ to shift the focus to family-based wealth dynamics; we also compare how men and women on the Forbes 400 rich list from 2023 would be labelled using those terms. Additionally, we highlight the usefulness of non-binary concepts like upward mobility or the big jump . Such reconceptualization, we argue, offers a more nuanced understanding of the formation of the wealth elite.