Hasbro Inc. the board game company has released a new version of their beloved board game, Monopoly. This version is geared towards young women and it addresses the gender pay gap. It's called "Ms. Monopoly" and it's slogan right on the board game's box says: "the first game where women make more than men"! How does Hasbro accomplish this in Ms. Monopoly? They changed the rules. To start off, each player is not dealt the same amount of money by the banker that they normally would in the original, the female players are given $1,900 and the men are given $1,500. Additionally, when the female players pass go, they receive $240 and the men get the standard $200.
The release and creation of "Ms. Monopoly" is all an effort to recognize female trailblazers and female empowerment. Jen Boswinkel, senior director of global brand strategy and marketing for Hasbro Gaming had this to say about the new Monopoly: With all of the things surrounding female empowerment, it felt right to bring this to Monopoly in a fresh new way...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 addition to the new game rules, they changed some other basic principles of the game when it comes to investments. There will no longer be property investments, instead players invest in inventions and innovations made by women. Things such as: chocolate chip cookies, women's shape-wear, solar heating, and bulletproof vests to name a few. There are also some new tokens, such as a watch, a barbell, white hat, a glass, and a jet plane.
Boswinkel went on to say that: "We made sure that this felt authentic and was a fun game families could play and learn about these things that they love and are a part of their life that they didn’t know were invented by women."
This is the board game cover:
What's your thoughts about this? I can tell you mine...upon first seeing the headline I was intrigued and thought, "oh cool, Monopoly is featuring powerful women throughout history, I can get behind that". Then I read more into it and what the new version entails and I was disappointed. I am disappointed not because it features inventions and innovations by trailblazing women (I think that's a great feature), it's because they decided to add in a gender pay gap that in highlighting women, puts down men! Every female players starts off with more money than men and rewards female players more money just because they are female! This is not the way it should be. Yes, females should be given the same equal rights as men and not put at a starting disadvantage, but that does not mean to make up for past sins, let's put down men and give the females more money because they are not always given the same equal pay. This is an opportunity to highlight the accomplishments of females and how they can invent and perform professional tasks just as well or better than men in some incidents and their pay should reflect their skill not their gender. This game is off the bat telling girls they should automatically make more than men because they're females and an amends should be make. What they should have done is left the rules alone and showcased all these accomplishments done by women and taught young girls that they too can work hard and achieve great things because they are capable, not just because they are females. I like everything but the gender pay gap with the rules. Life, in the real world should be equal pay and I don't know anywhere where women are given more money just because. This was a good idea and they tried but they missed the mark a little bit. Just because men in the past have been given an unfair pay advantage doesn't not mean in turn women should instead. The game should be a tool to teach about equal pay, not making amends for previous unfair gender pay gaps...two wrongs don't make it right people!
-Producer Lightning