Marry for money? No thanks, say the new breed of wealthy women

Fewer than one in four female millionaires said that marrying a rich man was the major reason for their wealth.

The majority said they earned their own money from starting a business or making investments.

The findings of the survey, by private banking service Barclays Wealth Management, suggest that women are increasingly adept at making a fortune independently.

Economists have predicted that there will be more female millionaires than male by 2020.

The Centre for Economics and Business Research found last year that women now make up 46 per cent of the 370,000 millionaires in Britain. It predicted that they will overtake men to reach 53 per cent by 2020.

The Centre said the fact that women live longer than men - meaning they often inherit a husband's wealth - coupled with increasingly generous divorce settlements would play a big role in pushing up the numbers.

But yesterday's study dismissed the idea that marriage, inheritance and increasingly generous divorce settlements are largely responsible for the growing numbers of rich women.

The report suggested that the rise of service industries - which have attracted working women in unprecedented numbers - is behind the boom.

The survey of 600 wealthy women found that 83.9 per cent pointed to earnings and business ownership as the main reasons for their affluence.

Just under a third (32.8 per cent) named personal investment. By contrast, less than a quarter (24.7 per cent) said that marriage had brought them wealth and just under a fifth (19.9 per cent) said they inherited it.

Only 2.2 per cent named divorce as the source of their money and property.

Amy Nauiokas, managing director of Barclays Wealth, said: "The evidence points to more women becoming independently wealthy through their job, ownership of a business, or from personal investment.

"The more traditional drivers of wealth still play a part, but they are no longer the dominant forces they once were."