Monopoly began life as The Landlord’s Game, a board game created by female designer Lizzie Magie at the start of the 20th century as a searing socialist criticism of economic inequality. I mean, we all know Monopoly was stolen from Elizabeth Magie’s The Landlord‘s Game, so from my academic standpoint. Of course, the irony wasn’t lost on many that Monopoly is itself an invention by a female pioneer, which was taken and claimed for his own by a man – something that Hasbro’s “celebration of female trailblazers” appears to gloss over and outright ignore. Players can construct business headquarters to collect rent from passing opponents. The game’s rules are otherwise the same, with Hasbro insisting: “Don't worry, if men play their cards right, they can make more money too.' (The game can also be reverted back to every player receiving the same amount of money, obviously.)Īround the board, Monopoly’s properties, utilities and stations have been replaced by inventions from female pioneers, such as Wi-Fi (pioneered by actress and inventor Hedy Lamarr), bulletproof vests (a result of Stephanie Kwolek’s invention of the multi-purpose material Kevlar), solar heating (co-discovered by ‘Sun Queen’ Mária Telkes) and chocolate chip cookies (commercialised by Toll House Cookie creator Ruth Graves Wakefield). Monopoly, this difference is flipped: female players start the game with $1,900 compared to their male counterparts’ $1,500, and they collect $240 as they pass Go, while men continue to collect the traditional $200.

As of April 2019 (via The Guardian), a quarter of UK companies were found to pay female employees 20% less than male workers, with the average difference found to be 9.6% in favour of men. Monopoly changes up the game’s iconic ‘collect money as you pass Go’ rule and hands players different amounts of starting cash based on their gender, in an apparent effort to reverse the real-world gender pay gap between men and women. Monopoly, Pennybags’ niece and a “self-made investment guru”. Monopoly, as he’s more commonly known – on the front. It’s the first Monopoly game with an in-universe character other than the franchise’s mascot Rich Uncle Pennybags – or Mr. Monopoly is touted in its tagline as “the first game where women make more than men” and is said by Hasbro to be a ‘celebration of women trailblazers’. Monopoly, a new edition of the classic board game that pays female players more than their male counterparts. Monopoly maker Hasbro is continuing its run of socially-charged spin-offs with Ms.

Who invented ms monopoly