Actress Demi Moore, 62, had these words to offer to older women earlier this year, when she took home a surprise Golden Globe in January: “You’re not done.”
Indeed, women are still making huge marks and taking significant strides later in life – and Forbes new “50 Over 50” list of accomplished older women proves it. The list was pulled together from a thousands-strong pool of nominations. Rounds of vetting and fact-checking followed, before Forbes finalized its list of 200 honorees, split into four categories featuring 50 women each.
Some of those selected are names you know – actress Halle Berry, who has become the new face of menopause, and Alice Wong, a disability rights activist, among them. And some of them are names we know from our own past reporting, such as entomologist Pam Marrone, now the co-founder of bio-friendly Invasive Species Corp. But the 2025 collection of women achievers is also comprised of lesser-known but equally impressive entrepreneurs, creators, STEM pioneers and investors, among other accomplished individuals.
And not only are they making history – as well as making money, with some heading companies that rake in billions annually – they’re also innovating solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems from a variety of directions and perspectives.
In that vein, there’s Ann Cooper, 71, the founder and current president of the Chef Ann Foundation, which helps schools provide all-natural food options for children. And 56-year-old Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner of nonprofit MomsRising has organized people to fight for state-level policies that help families thrive, including child-labor protections in Florida and subsidized childcare access in West Virginia.
In order to make such impacts and reach the top tiers of achievement, many of them had to claw their ways upwards over the years – like Suma Krishnan, the 60-year-old founder of publicly traded company Krystal Biotech, which today is valued at $4 billion.
Krishnan came to the United States at age 20 with little to her name besides a desire to earn a master’s degree. “I would never have imagined that I would have a drug approved with my own company, with my own IP, not in a million years,” Krishnan said to Forbes. “But I am a fighter – and if I have a will, I’ll make it happen.”
