Gina Rinehart and the Australian women on the Forbes Rich List - Women's Agenda

Gina Rinehart and the Australian women on the Forbes Rich List

Forbes has released its latest Rich List for Australia and, unlike the majority of countries, we have a woman in the top spot.

Mining magnate Gina Rinehart is still Australia’s richest person, with a current worth estimate of $11.7 billion. This huge sum of wealth is more than double that of the person who came in at number two — Harry Triguboff, worth $5.6 billion.

Rinehart has retained the top spot by a $6 billion margin despite her wealth dropping sizably over the last year. Coal and iron ore prices have both dropped significantly in recent months, meaning Rinehart’s overall wealth has dropped by $6 billion since the beginning of 2014. 

Rinehart is not the only Australian woman to reach the top echelons of the list. Fiona Geminder, co-owner of plastic packaging business Pact Group, came in at number 12 with $2.1 billion. She is the daughter of company founder Richard Pratt, and now owns 40% of the business with her husband Raphael Geminder.

The next spot on the list – number 13 – is also occupied by a woman. Heloise Waislitz is Geminder’s sister and another heir to the Pratt fortune. On top of this, she owns a public securities, private companies and property portfolio called Thorney Holdings with her husband Alex Waislitz. The business assists private companies in the mining, manufacturing and technology industries.

The final woman on the Australian Rich List is Angela Bennett, at number 31 with $970 million. Bennett also made her fortune off the back of the mining industry. She inherited Wright Prospecting from her father Peter Wright, who co-founded the business with Gina Rinehart’s father Lang Hancock. As well as directing Wright Prospecting, Bennett also owns 15% of Hamersley Iron shares.

Despite having a woman steadily occupying the number one spot, Australia’s rich list still only features a grand total of four women in a list of 50. This means women still make up less than 10% of Australia’s wealthiest citizens. These figures are even worse when it comes to the global rich list, which consists of 1548 names and has only 169 women (just 1.1%).

The question remains: Why do the world’s most lucrative markets not support women’s rise to the top? Why do these lists consistently fail so miserably to achieve any semblance of gender parity?

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