Monopoly Debuts New Game Where Women Make More Money

In the real world, women make 80 cents to every dollar a man makes but Hasbro reversed the money-making advantage by giving it to mujeres with the debut of Ms

Photo: Unsplash/@pedro_ag_santos

Photo: Unsplash/@pedro_ag_santos

In the real world, women make 80 cents to every dollar a man makes but Hasbro reversed the money-making advantage by giving it to mujeres with the debut of Ms. Monopoly.

Unlike the classic game, women will collect 240 Monopoly bucks when they pass “go,” and male players will collect the typical 200. According to Hasbro, this is the first game of its kind. The advantages don’t stop there, the banker also gives a female player $1,900 in Monopoly Money while each male player receives $1,500.

It’s “a fun new take on the game that creates a world where women have an advantage often enjoyed by men,” the company said in a statement, according to CNN.

But the differences go beyond money: instead of buying property, players invest in inventions created by women including chocolate chip cookies, Kevlar bulletproof vests, and women’s shapewear. But for those worried the game may stray too far from the original, there are still the classic aspects included such as jail, luxury taxes, and chance cards.

The game has also been updated to reflect a contemporary lifestyle including ride shares instead of railroads and Wi-Fi instead of waterworks and the new tokens include a white hat, a watch, a barbell, a glass, and a jet plane (it’s a millennial’s dream board game).

“With all of the things surrounding female empowerment, it felt right to bring this to Monopoly in a fresh new way,” Jen Boswinkel, senior director of global brand strategy and marketing for Hasbro Gaming, told USA Today. “It’s giving the topic some relevancy to everyone playing it that everybody gets a turn, and this time women get an advantage at the start.”

In celebration of the game, Hasbro surprised three young female inventors with $20,580 in real cash: 13-year-old Gitanjali Rao, of Denver, and Sophia Wang from Connecticut and Ava Canney from Ireland, both 16, USA Today reports. Gitanjali inventions include the Tethys, a device that detects lead in drinking water.

“There are so many big things that most people think are created by men, but they’re actually created by women,” said Gitanjali. “It really expanded my knowledge and was so empowering to me.”

Considering that Latinas face the biggest wage gap (58 percent in comparison) among women this feels especially timely.

Though no word on if any of the inventions featured on the game were developed by Latinas, some of the most famous include Ellen Ochoa, the first Latina in space who is the co-inventor of optics that deal with images from space.

The game goes on sale this month at $19.99 and available for preorder at Walmart.com.

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