Power players: 5 of the richest and most influential women in China’s technology circles

Of the 73 billionaire self-made women in the world reported last year, 49 or two-thirds came from China, according to a Hurun Research Institute report released in October.

And a number made their fortune in China’s technology circles with some of the most inspiring stories in the world of business today.

While gender inequality remains an issue in modern-day China, the situation is changing quickly and Chairman Mao Zedong’s famous proclamation that women “hold up half the sky” is becoming more of a reality in various industries and professions.

According to a McKinsey report on the economic potential of advancing female equality last year, China’s China’s Gender Parity Score is 0.61 - with 1.00 representing gender parity. This compares to 0.74 for top-performing region North America and Oceana.

But as China celebrated International Women’s Day with the rest of the world yesterday (the theme was: Pledge for Parity), some of its most successful female businesswomen are doing just that: holding up half the sky, and seeking out new horizons.

In China’s exploding technology scene, scores of female power players are pulling the strings even if they aren’t yet hogging the spotlight like their top male counterparts - Alibaba Group founder and executive chairman Jack Ma Yun (net worth: 145 billion yuan, or US$22.25 billion), Tencent founder, president and CEO “Pony” Ma Huateng (net worth: 120 billion yuan), and Baidu founder Robin Li Yanhong (net worth: 85 billion yuan), to name a few.