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Hasbro has faux-feminist marketing as the goal for their board game, and it muddles women’s issues in the working word.
“The game where women make more than men.” That’s the cheeky tagline of Ms. Monopoly, yet the game oversimplifies its portrayal of the gender wage gap.
Ms. Monopoly is one of the numerous spinoffs of the popular boardgame. The game has a few differences from Monopoly, two of which are problematic.
- All board spaces are replaced with inventions by women, as opposed to properties.
- The game has women start with 1900 Monopoly money while men start with 1500. Women also gain 240 monopoly money when passing go while men gain 200. (Perhaps unsurprisingly, the game commits the faux-feminist mistake of reinforcing a gender binary.)
- Previously beloved railroads are now rideshares.
- Utilities become Wi-Fi and space heating.
Ms. Monopoly’s wage gap mechanic.
This (marketing) game mechanic is likely in reference to the (true) commonly referenced statistics which state that women earn around 80 cents for every dollar earned by a man. As of 2022, the differential is 84 cents for every dollar.
Of course, that real-life disparity is problematic, but it is also a misleading portrayal which lacks the complexities of the gender wage gap. For instance, the wage gap is only a (serious) part of a greater world of how the patriarchy affects women.
The difficulties of motherhood in a corporate world show how patriarchal attitudes creates economic disparities with forcing women to make a choice between career and childcare, not an unexplainable phantasm of a patriarchy that generates statistics. In 2023, research by Catalyst showed that 67% of women are concerned that childcare will negatively affect their career.
Economic discrimination based on childcare is a subversive feminist issue because a lack of affordable or subsidized childcare (and in turn all childcare) discriminates against women because childcare is a role that is disproportionately applied to women. Of course, that is not to ignore that motherhood is a role that many women greatly appreciate. Even roles which are typically net positive should not come with unequal pressure.
Ms. Monopoly’s wage gap feature, which could optimistically be called a patronizing design choice, only adds to common misunderstandings of the gender wage gap which ignores its complexities such as parental leave, workplace dynamics, promotions and the gender division of labor.
Board spaces are now inventions by women.
The problem with patents: It shows the misleading portrayal of the gender wage gap and it snubs the woman who made the original Monopoly. This woman is Lizzie Magie, who created and patented the 1904 board game which evolved into monopoly, The Landlord’s Game.
Instead of promoting a misunderstanding of the gender wage gap for marketing purposes, Magie themed The Landlord’s Game with a message favoring a political ideology called Georgism, which primarily argues that a land tax will benefit society.
According to Bee Bussell, an alumna, the ideological goals of The Landlord’s Game lead to the deficits in modern Monopoly.
“Your point is to do something that’s inherently bad to competition, right? That’s what the game encourages. So how can a game that is supposed to parody bad competition practices be good for competition?” Bussell said.
The gender wage gap has complexities based on field and the proportion of patents created by women shows this. In 2022, only 17% of patents were created by women. Such a disparity demonstrates that inequality and misogyny is greater in specific fields.
This nuance is absent in the game’s previously mentioned tagline. Ironically, Ms. Monopoly features women’s inventions meanwhile their public relations department actively denies the contributions of Magie, an undercompensated, early board game designer.
When Mary Pilon, a journalist and the author of a book documenting Monopoly’s beginnings, reached out to Hasbro, a spokeswoman claimed that a male inventor created the game in 1935.
Real solutions to the gender wage gap.
Since the genesis of Ms. Monopoly in 2019, the gender wage gap has persisted. Although the gender wage gap could be fixed by society having greater consideration for women (abolishing the patriarchy), we still have room for legal reform to prevent discrimination.
For instance, the Paycheck Fairness Act, which was introduced in the House of Representatives in 2019, would attempt to reduce the gender wage gap by limiting employer defenses in discrimination cases, making NDAs which prevent talking about wage illegal, funding research on gender equality in pay and strengthening non retaliatory policies, among other things.
Thankfully, the United States has passed some reform under the Biden-Harris administration which benefits gender equality in the workplace and education, such as expanding Title XI (in states where it wasn’t legally blocked), the landmark gender equality legislation of 1972. The reforms include protections for LGBTQ+ students and restored protections for universities to address sexual assault.
Independent of our progress, gender discrimination in workplaces and education have a long journey ahead.
As legal reform shows, removing misogynistic barriers, biases and discrimination is how to take on the gender wage gap, not condescending special advantages like in Ms. Monopoly.
