Male Heirs and Self-Made Women? Gender, Extreme Wealth and the Ivy League

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Pentious

Education can either preserve social class through wealth reproduction or support upward mobility through wealth production. Examining U.S. billionaire attendance at Ivy League universities, the study analyzes 1,028 individuals using Forbes World’s Billionaires data (2010–2023) and Wikidata. Overall, 26% attended an Ivy League school. Male heirs attend slightly more than self-made men, while self-made women show markedly higher Ivy League attendance than female heirs, implying education functions differently by wealth origin and gender.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages12

Reading Time30 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Education as class reproduction vs wealth production

Elite education and credential gatekeeping

Ivy League as an elite education proxy

Data sources and sample construction

Findings overview

Attendance patterns by gender and wealth origin

AERA Open January-December 2025, Vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 1–12 DOI: 10. 1177/23328584251400269 Article reuse guidelines: [sagepub.com/journals-permissions](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)[ ](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)© The Author(s) 2025. [https://journals.sagepub.com/home/ero](https://journals.sagepub.com/home/ero) Male Heirs and Self-Made Women? Gender, Extreme Wealth and the Ivy League Karen Lillie Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies Charlotte de Alwis GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences Daria Tisch Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies The literature shows that education can work to maintain social class status (wealth reproduction) or provide upward mobility (wealth production). Against this backdrop, we examine U.S. billionaires’attendance rates at Ivy League universities, with a focus on origin of wealth and gender. Using data from The Forbes World’s Billionaires list (2010–2023) combined with information retrieved from Wikidata, we analyze a sample of 1,028 individuals. Of these, 26% attended an Ivy League school. Attendance was slightly higher for male heirs than for self-made men, despite their nearly identical [rates of U.S. university](rates of U.S. university)[ ](rates of U.S. university)[attendance. Self-made women](attendance. Self-made women), however, showed much higher Ivy League attendance rates than female heirs. Our findings offer a descriptive account of billionaires’ educational backgrounds that carries theoretical implications: An Ivy League education may fulfill different functions according to wealth origin and gender, reinforcing privilege for some (male heirs) while acting as a tool of advancement for others (self-made women). Keywords: Gender Studies, Higher Education, Social Class, Social Stratification, Sociology, Descriptive Analysis, Elites, Wealth, Wikidata Introduction The extant literature on elites—broadly conceptualized as those who have control over not only vast resources but also their distribution and valuation (Bourdieu, 1986; Khan, 2012)—has shown that education functions both to facilitate entry into the elite and to keep out those without certain credentials (see Stevens et al., 2008) . What matters in this process, though, is not the level of one’s education (Bukodi & Goldthorpe, 2011; Kaplan & Rauh, 2013; Lebaron & Dogan, 2016). Rather, it is the social status of the institution attended (Lucas, 2001; Stevens et al., 2008; Useem & Karabel, 1986) . This article examines attendance rates of U. S. billionairesat Ivy League universities, with particular attention to origin of wealth and gendered differences. The Ivy League refers toa group of eight schools in the Eastern United States: Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, and Yale University. As we discuss in the methodology section, we see the Ivy League as a sufficient, albeit imperfect, proxy for elite education. To construct a sample of billionaires, we used data from The Forbes World’s Billionaires list, from 2010 to 2023. We refer to these individuals as “billionaires-in-making” when they were at university, as they were probably not yet billionaires at the time of their studies. Studying billionaires’ educational histories fills a crucial gap in the literature. Most quantitative studies of elites’ educational histories define the elite by their positions—as CEOs, top executives, board members, and so forth (i.e., Bühlmann et al., 2022; Hartmann, 2000; Salas-Díaz & Young, 2025) . Yet, the very rich are not necessarily rich because they run large companies. They may, for example, have inherited wealth. This is especially true for women (Ischinsky & Tisch, 2022) . Moreover, as Piketty (2014) has famously argued, capital returns from wealth have outpaced the growth rate of income—meaning that those who already have wealth are getting richer faster

FAQs

How does the study frame the role of education in social class outcomes?

It contrasts education as a mechanism for wealth reproduction and class maintenance versus education as a route to upward mobility via wealth production.

What data and sample are used to analyze Ivy League attendance?

The analysis combines Forbes World’s Billionaires list data (2010–2023) with information retrieved from Wikidata, covering a sample of 1,028 individuals.

What differences in Ivy League attendance does the study find by gender and wealth origin?

Male heirs show slightly higher Ivy League attendance than self-made men, while self-made women have much higher Ivy League attendance than female heirs; these women match men’s U.S. university attendance but not Ivy League attendance.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Pentious