The 50 Over 50 is the culmination of a five-month research and reporting process that includes vetting and judging from outside experts. We started in March by asking the general public for recommendations—an annual exercise that has, over the last four years, resulted in thousands of nominations—then supplemented and trimmed that list using the expertise of the Know Your Value team and Forbes beat reporters. The result: a collection of nearly 500 semifinalists.
To cull that group down to the final 200 we asked some tough questions: What are your greatest “Over 50” accomplishments? Did you step into a new or more powerful role later in life? Did you make a big pivot? Are you achieving at scale? Helping us assess the answers to these questions were seven judges, all 50 Over 50 alumni: venture capitalist Theresia Gouw, AnitaB.org president and CEO Brenda Darden Wilkerson, and five others you can read about here.
Once the judges’ picks were in, the Forbes and Know Your Value teams went through another round of debate, fact-checking and tire-kicking. The payoff from all this work is a collection of inspiring women who understand that age and experience can be the best tools for success—and that, ultimately, there is no deadline for becoming who you are meant to be.
Every single one of the 200 people on the 2024 50 Over 50 list was born into a society in which American women could not apply for a credit card, mortgage or bank account without a male cosigner. This changed in 1974, when President Gerald Ford signed into law the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, which outlawed lenders requiring a husband’s, father’s or brother’s signature for a woman applying for credit. On the 50th anniversary of this legislation, we asked the 50 Over 50 to tell us what equal credit opportunity means to them.