Whenever I arrive new job, the first thing I do is call my dad. And the first thing he asks me is: How much do they pay you? The man’s obsession with dollars and cents runs well in the Drummond family. But his keen interest in the size of my salary has a very good reason: money rules the world, after all, be that as it may your to have or not to have. So, Mr. Drummond reckons, you can try to earn as much as you can.
My inherited pathology aside, WIRED’s interest in money is as obvious as it is vast: We cover an industry awash in trillions of dollars, and that industry happens to shape everything about the way we all live. 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 money-watching WIRED reporters far and wide: From the United Arab Emirates to Denmark to Washington, DC, to freaking Florida, we cast far and wide to bring you some unique WIRED stories documenting wealth and power across the planet.
Finally, a group of editors sat down to evaluate our lineup. And we noticed something while flipping through the blueprints and infographics. Wherever in the world they send a reporter, whatever corner of the technological landscape they cover, who owns all that money? Men. All of them. Each. Single. One. Bill Gates, who discussed his new memoir with Steven Levy (stay tuned), has enjoyed 19 of the last 30 years at the top of the list of the world’s richest people. Of the 30 or so crypto investors in Trump’s inner circle, they are all – wait a minute – guys. Even the young men running door to door in the Sunshine State, collecting solar panels in a desperate bid to become millionaires by the time they’re 30, are, well, men.
Let me be the first to point it out: There’s more testosterone in this issue than in the past decade of People’s Sexiest Man Alive issues combined. In part, it’s a circumstantial reality: 87 percent of billionaires worldwide are men, and women are still vastly, outrageously outnumbered in executive positions in the tech industry. None of this even takes into account racial diversity, which paints an even bleaker picture. It is likely to continue apace, as tech giants like Meta and Google reduce their investments in DEI. Meanwhile, online manosphere— recently encouraged by President Trump and his first friend Musk — continues to metastasize in scope and influence.
But I will take ownership too. At WIRED, it’s our failure of editorial foresight and imagination that we saw the obvious — blatant, insistent masculinity, page after page — only at the last minute. Lest we, earlier in our allocation process, choose to examine the strained and fractured gender dynamics of wealth accumulation, corporate influence, power. All of this still, surprisingly, belongs almost exclusively to men with penises, with baritones commanding boardrooms and with a centuries-long advantage.
Don’t get me wrong: you’ll enjoy this issue, both in print and online. We hope you’ll learn a little about how the big bucks in tech are raised and spent, and how people – men – raise and spend them. But from one female lead to all the men out there, including those featured on our pages: For now, this is a rich man’s world, but believe me, women love money too. And we’re coming to get some of yours.
Let us know what you think about this article. Send a letter to the editor at mail@wired.com.