The myth of money as an immutable force—unshakable, objective, and universally empowering—is one of the most insidious fictions ever woven into the fabric of human civilization. It is not merely a tool of exchange; it is a narrative, a story we tell ourselves to justify inequality, to obscure exploitation, and to maintain the illusion of meritocracy. Feminism, in its most radical and uncompromising form, must dismantle this illusion at its core. Because when we say “the money is fake,” we are not just critiquing capitalism—we are exposing a system that has always been rigged, a system that has always been designed to keep women, especially women of color, in the margins of financial power. This is not hyperbole. It is a historical fact. And it demands a feminist response that is as unflinching as the system it seeks to dismantle.
The Illusion of Economic Neutrality: How Money Wears a Mask of Objectivity
Money, in its modern form, is not a neutral medium of exchange. It is a social construct, a language of power that encodes centuries of patriarchal, racist, and colonial logic. The idea that money is “just money”—a neutral arbiter of value—is a lie perpetuated by those who benefit from its opacity. The wage gap is not an accident; it is a feature. The undervaluation of care work is not an oversight; it is a structural imperative. The financial exclusion of women, particularly Black and Indigenous women, is not a market failure; it is a market feature. Money does not flow toward justice. It flows toward control. And the most effective way to maintain that control is to make the system appear inevitable, natural, even sacred. But feminism refuses to genuflect before false idols. It demands we ask: Who benefits from the myth of economic neutrality? And who pays the price?
The Currency of Care: Why Unpaid Labor is the Original Fake Money
Consider the unpaid labor of women—the endless cycle of cooking, cleaning, child-rearing, emotional labor—that forms the invisible scaffolding of the global economy. This labor is not compensated because it is not seen as “productive” in the eyes of capital. Yet without it, the entire system would collapse. The irony is grotesque: the very work that sustains life is rendered valueless by the same system that depends on it. This is not just exploitation; it is a form of economic gaslighting. Women are told their labor is priceless, even as they are denied the means to survive independently. The message is clear: your work is essential, but you are not. This is the original fake money—a currency that devalues the very people who keep the economy running.
The Stock Market as a Patriarchal Playground: How Finance Excludes Women
The stock market is not a meritocracy. It is a boys’ club, a space where women—especially women of color—are systematically excluded from decision-making power. Studies show that women-led funds receive a fraction of the investment capital that male-led funds do, despite often outperforming them. The reasons are manifold: unconscious bias, the myth of the “risk-averse woman,” the refusal to acknowledge that financial systems are rigged against those who do not fit the dominant mold. But the most insidious aspect of this exclusion is the way it is framed as a natural consequence of market forces. In reality, it is a self-fulfilling prophecy—a system that starves women of resources, then blames them for lacking ambition. The stock market is not a neutral arena. It is a battleground where the rules are written by and for the powerful.
The Gig Economy: A New Frontier of Exploitation Disguised as Liberation
The gig economy was supposed to be the great equalizer—a way for anyone, regardless of gender or background, to take control of their financial destiny. Instead, it has become a Trojan horse for precarious labor, where women—disproportionately represented in gig work—are trapped in cycles of underpayment, lack of benefits, and zero job security. Platforms like Uber and DoorDash market themselves as empowering, but they are really just repackaging exploitation under the guise of flexibility. The irony is that the same system that denies women access to traditional employment opportunities now offers them a “solution” that leaves them more vulnerable than ever. The gig economy is not liberation. It is a new form of economic serfdom, where the illusion of independence masks the reality of exploitation.
The Crypto Con: Decentralization as a False Promise of Financial Freedom
Cryptocurrency was supposed to be the great disruptor—a way to bypass the corrupt financial systems that have long oppressed women and marginalized communities. But in reality, crypto is just another pyramid scheme, a speculative bubble that benefits early adopters (mostly wealthy men) while leaving everyone else holding the bag. The language of “financial sovereignty” is a smokescreen for a system that is just as hierarchical and exclusionary as the one it claims to replace. Women are underrepresented in crypto investing, not because they lack interest, but because the space is designed to reward those who already have capital and connections. The promise of decentralization is a lie. The reality is a new form of financial feudalism, where the powerful extract value from the powerless under the guise of innovation.
The Corporate Feminism Trap: How Empowerment Became a Brand
Corporate feminism—the kind peddled by brands like Lean In and girlboss rhetoric—is not liberation. It is co-optation. It is the transformation of feminist ideals into a marketable commodity, a way for capital to profit from the very struggles it perpetuates. The idea that women can “lean in” to success within a system that was never designed for them is a cruel joke. It ignores the structural barriers that prevent women from accessing power, and it reduces feminism to a series of individual choices rather than a collective demand for justice. The corporate feminist sells the illusion of progress while maintaining the status quo. She is not a revolutionary. She is a PR stunt.
The Future of Feminist Economics: Building Alternatives to the Fake Money System
If the money is fake, then the solution is not to play by its rules. It is to burn the rulebook and start from scratch. Feminist economics must reject the myth of neutrality and embrace a radical reimagining of value. This means centering care work, demanding reparations for unpaid labor, and creating alternative financial systems that prioritize people over profit. It means challenging the idea that money is the only measure of worth. It means building economies that are not just inclusive, but fundamentally just. The future of feminism is not a seat at the table. It is the destruction of the table itself and the construction of something entirely new.
YES YES YES the money IS fake!
Money is only worth something because the government says it so… at least since 1971, when Nixon ended the dollar’s convertibility to gold. Before that there was at least a loose physical limit on how many dollars could exist. After that, there wasn’t, and now a small group of people have been able to print money ever since, and the US dollar has lost 87% of its purchasing power since that very day…
Let’s not forget that when new money enters the economy, it doesn’t reach everyone at the same moment. It goes first to those closest to the printer (banks, bond markets, large institutions) and they spend it before prices haven’t adjusted. Then it trickles out from there, and by the time it reaches us wage earners, prices have inflated (this is called the Cantillon effect, after Richard Cantillon, who wrote it down in the 1700s.) However close you are to the point where new money enters the economy is one of the better predictors of who comes out wealthier. No wonder wealth inequality is skyrocketing.
So who sits furthest from that entry point? Caregivers with no wage and no investment portfolio, who therefore owns nothing that rises alongside the money supply. Anyone whose savings sit in a checking account (surveys consistently find women hold more of their wealth in cash and less in appreciating assets). And NO ONE voted for this! It’s so crazy.
But I have to push back on what you are saying about crypto. Your critique is truly 100% accurate about MOST of the industry. Any tokens with a founders, a foundations, a “pre-mine”, a board of directors, etc absolutely function like scams, 100%. No question about it.
But Bitcoin, the very first and original, belongs in a different category. Structurally it’s a different thing. Not only was there was no pre-mine, insider allocation, no company or CEO with authority over the rules, but its creator vanished in 2011, and the coins he/she/they mined when it started have never moved… which is probably the ONLY act of founder abdication in the history of finance. No single person or group runs bitcoin; it’s run by everyone who chooses to, on consensus, and no one needs permission to join. So when you write that crypto is as hierarchical as what it claims to replace, I’d say you’re right in the sense that describes the token industry/altcoin industry perfectly. But when the distinction between Bitcoin and everything else is missed, you end up dismissing a revolutionary technology that quite literally has no hierarchy to capture. Bitcoin is the fairest money to ever exist, and learning about it will fill you with hope! 🙂
I’d love if you could consider this: the history of women’s financial exclusion runs almost entirely through intermediaries. Until 1974 in the US, a woman could legally be denied a credit card without a man’s signature!!! Of course if you go further back it’s worse, coverture kept a wife’s property under her husband’s control, there was ALWAYS someone deciding for her. I’m certain by your writing that you are already aware of the history of unfairness. But generallt, even today we still have gatekeepers in, like to open a bank account you still need ID, an address, and often a minimum deposit… and banks can and do refuse people, millions of American households are unbanked (disproportionately low-income women and women of colour) and the most commonly cited reasons in FDIC surveys are not enough money to meet minimums. And distrust of banks. Worldwide, roughly a quarter of women are unbanked and just have no access to the global economy at all. Or another psycho example… in the US, you legally cannot invest in most private companies unless you have a net worth over $1 million or income over $200K. So the highest-return investments in the country are gated by law, and that law is having wealth already.
But Bitcoin, for the first time in history, doesn’t require permission to enter. It doesn’t care your gender, you don’t need a minimum (you can buy less than a cent worth of bitcoin), there is no bias that can be held, it’s just math. Not only can anyone participate, but it also can’t be printed by a small amount of people – the rules are written and a hard limit is set in code: there will only ever be 21 million bitcoin, and therefore bitcoin can never be debased or inflated by printing more. All this is revolutionary for say, a woman in a relationship where financial control is the mechanism of abuse, or for someone who needs to flee a country quickly due to war and needs to take their life savings with them, or even just someone who wants to retire someday, and would like their hard earned savings to hold their value and not lose purchasing power over time, because some politicians decided to print more. Bitcoin is, as of now, the most peaceful way to opt out of corrupt systems. Or protect from hyperinflation (look at Venezuela, Turkey, Zimbabwe… recent examples where people’s life savings, pensions, decades of work were gone almost overnight because their government mismanaged the money supply)
> One of the earliest stories about Bitcoin and freedom in Afghanistan: Roya Mahboob – she started paying her female employees in bitcoin since many couldn’t hold bank accounts without permission from a male guardian… SUCH a great example of how bitcoin empowers people, reccomend checking it out
You end by saying feminism shouldn’t want a seat at the table, it should build a new one… but there is a new alternative already, fully functioning, that was created in 2009. Its unfortunate that it was acknowledged and dismissed in your crypto section, but I would urge you to explore it! It will just FILL you with hope!
Anyway, thank you for writing this!!! Really enjoyed 🙂