Whenever I get a new job, the first thing I do is call my father. Always ask the same thing: How much do they pay you? This man’s obsession with dollars and cents is a Drummond family tradition. But your interest in the amount of my salary has a good reason: Money runs the world, whether you have it or not. According to my father, “it is best to earn as much as you can.”
My inherited pathologies aside, WIRED’s interest in money is as obvious as it is enormous: We cover an industry awash in trillions of dollars, and it turns out that this industry shapes everything about our way of life. But who exactly has that money? How do they handle it? And what does that mean for the rest of us? To find out, we sent some WIRED reporters to far-flung places: from the United Arab Emirates to Denmark, Washington DC to strange Florida; We have traveled the length and breadth of the world to bring you exclusive stories documenting wealth and power.
Finally, a group of editors sat down to discuss the reports, Flipping through drafts and infographics we found that the owners of all that money were men. All of them. All. Bill Gates, who sat down with journalist Steven Levy to talk about his new memoir, has enjoyed 19 of the last 30 years at the top of the list of the world’s richest people. Of the 30 cryptocurrency investors Of Trump’s inner circle, they are all men. Even the young men who go door-to-door in Florida, nicknamed the “Sunshine State,” selling solar panels in a desperate attempt to become millionaires before they are 30, are men.
The patriarchy controls the pockets
Let me be the first to point it out: There is more testosterone in this context than in the last ten editions of the list People of the “Sexiest Man in the World”, together. It is a reality resulting from the consequences: 87% of the world’s billionaires are men, and women continue to be far above men in executive positions in the industry. tech. The figure does not take into account racial diversity, which paints an even bleaker picture. And it is likely to continue apace, as tech giants like Meta and Google reduce their investments in DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion). Meanwhile, the online manosphere, newly emboldened by President Trump and his ‘First Friend’ Musk, continues to metastasize in reach and influence.
But WIRED also bears part of the responsibility, it is a failure of editorial foresight not to have seen the obvious: the blatant and persistent masculinity. Not interrogating the tense and fractured gender dynamics of wealth accumulation, of corporate influence, of power. Aspects that continue to jealously belong to people with penises, with deep voices that rule the boardrooms and with centuries of advantage.
Don’t get me wrong, you will enjoy multiple and varied reports in 2025. We hope our readers learn a thing or two about how the big money in technology is accumulated and spent, and about the people, the men, who accumulate and spend it. But from a woman in charge of other men, including those who write in WIRED’s spaces, the world may now seem to be led by rich men; But believe me, women like money too. And let’s go for yours.
Article originally published in WIRED. Adapted by Alondra Flores.
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