【Sisters Slave (2019)】

Ladies,Sisters Slave (2019) are you tired of the gender pay gap? Are you wondering how to busy yourself during the 202 years it will take to remedy gender pay inequality?

Fret ye not, games giant Hasbro has the answer to all your patriarchy-related prayers: Ms. Monopoly. Congrats to women everywhere, equality has finally arrived. The glass ceiling? Smashed. The patriarchy? Toppled.

Ms. Monopoly is the "first game where women make more than men," according to a slogan on the box. A statement that, alas, cannot be uttered about real-life.

Here's a line from the press release that'll make you smile (or weep, most likely): "a fun spin in the game that creates a world where women have an advantage often enjoyed by men. However, if men play their cards right, they can make more money too."

Hey, if you need a break from agonising over the fact women earned, on average, 85 percent of what men earned in 2018, at least you can indulge in this make-believe world where fairness exists. A world that, according to the World Economic Forum, won't exist during our lifetimes. Fun!

The head-thumping-against-your-desk misery doesn't end there. In fact, it gets A LOT worse.

Per a Hasbro press release, this is a game which "celebrates women trailblazers."

View this post on Instagram

Huh. Interesting. Kind of like the way Monopoly celebrated its own woman inventor, Elizabeth Magie? A woman who — according to an extract from the 2015 bookThe Monopolists byMary Pilon — "until recently has largely been lost to history, and in some cases deliberately written out of it."

Here's a quick recap of how things turned out for the female inventor of Monopoly. For a very long time it was believed that the inventor of Monopoly was an unemployed man called Charles Darrow who "dreamed up" the game in the 1930s. "He sold it and became a millionaire, his inventiveness saving him — and Parker Brothers, the beloved New England board game maker — from the brink of destruction," per Pilon.

It's a great yarn. But, a yarn is precisely what this is. Monopoly's origins actually started out when Elizabeth Magie spent her free time making a board game which reflected her highly progressive political views. "Magie filed a legal claim for her Landlord’s Game in 1903, more than three decades before Parker Brothers began manufacturing Monopoly," states the extract from the book, published in the New York Times. "She actually designed the game as a protest against the big monopolists of her time — people like Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller."

In 1936, Magie spoke to the press about her anger at "Darrow's appropriation of her idea". The Evening Star estimated back then that, factoring in lawyers, printers, and Patent Office fees, "the game has cost her more than she made from it." Magie died in "relative obscurity" and neither her obituary nor headstone makes any mention of the fact she invented one of the best-selling board games of all time. Magie reportedly only received $500 for the game.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

Curiously, Hasbro's press release about its new game celebrating female inventors makes zero mention of the woman who invented Monopoly. Funny that.

Mashable reached out to Hasbro to ask why the press release made no mention of Monopoly's female inventor but the company did not reply immediately.

"Meet Ms. Monopoly! Mr. Monopoly's niece, a self-made investment guru, is here to celebrate women trailblazers and update a few things. It's about time!" Hasbro said in a tweet.

It really is about time, isn't it?

Unlike the classic version of Monopoly, female players of Ms. Monopoly will collect $240 when they pass go, and male players will collect the standard $200.

Wow, thank you, Monopoly. This almost, ALMOST makes up for the centuries of inequality women have faced at the hands of men who took credit for their ideas and prevented them from reaping the fruits of their labours.

"Hitting shelves in mid-September, Ms. Monopoly gives new meaning to the franchise, as properties are replaced by groundbreaking inventions and innovations made possible by women throughout history and instead of building houses, you build business headquarters," reads the press release. "From inventions like WiFi to chocolate chip cookies, solar heating and modern shapewear, Ms. Monopoly celebrates everything from scientific advancements to everyday accessories — all created by women."

Don't get me wrong, a game that champions female empowerment is a supremely rare and highly laudable concept. One that we'd honestly love to see more of. And yes, as part of the Ms. Monopoly promotion, Hasbro invested funds in the projects of three young inventors. But perhaps if the very game in question has a pretty questionable legacy when it comes to championing women trailblazers, it might be a good idea to sit this one out. Or even give a cursory mention to the woman that invented the game itself in the press release. Just a thought.