When can I get it a new job, the first thing I do is call my dad. And the first thing he asked me was: How much did they pay you? The man’s obsession with dollars and cents is in the Drummond family. But his keen interest in the size of my salary is for a very good reason: Money makes the world run, you there or not. So, Mr. Drummond numbers, you can try to make as much as you can.

My inherited pathologies aside, WIRED’s interest in money is as obvious as its magnitude: We cover an industry that’s overflowing with trillions of dollars, and that industry happens to shape everything about way we all live. But who really has that money? How do they use it? And what does that mean for the rest of us? To find out, we sent some WIRED reporters with money to far-flung places: From the United Arab Emirates to Denmark to Washington, DC, to haunted Florida, we’re flying far and wide to bring you some incredible WIRED stories documenting wealth and power across the planet.

Finally, a group of editors sat down to review our lineup. And we noticed something, as we flicked through the drafts and infographics. Wherever in the world we send reporters, wherever technology corners we cover, the holders of all the money? Men. All of them. Every. Single. One. Bill Gates, who sat down with Steven Levy to talk about his new memoir (stay tuned), has enjoyed 19 of the last 30 years at the top of the list of the richest people in the world. Of the 30-odd crypto investors in Trump’s inner circle, they’re all—wait for it—guys. Even the youngsters who are going door-to-door in the Sunshine State, shilling for solar panels in a desperate bid to be millionaires by 30, boys.

So I’ll be the first to point it out: There’s more testosterone in this issue than the last decade of People’s Sexiest Man Alive editions combined. On the one hand, that’s the reality of the situation: 87 percent of the world’s billionaires are men, and women continue to be more and more at the forefront of executive positions within the industry. technology. None of that begins to account for racial diversity, which paints an even darker picture. And it’s one that’s likely to continue apace, as tech giants like Meta and Google move away from their DEI investments. Meanwhile, the online manosphere—recently encouraged by President Trump and his First Buddy Musk — continues to metastasize in scope and influence.

But I will also own it. At WIRED, it’s our failure of editorial vision and imagination to see the obvious—the obvious, consistent masculinity, page after page—at the last minute. So that, earlier in our assignment process, we decided to interrogate the full and broken gender dynamics of wealth accumulation, corporate influence, power. All of which is still, annoyingly, almost exclusively for people with penises, with baritones who rule the boardroom, and with a century-long head start.

Don’t get me wrong: You will enjoy this issue, in print and online. We hope you’ll learn a thing or two about how big tech money is raised and spent, and people—men—raise and spend it. But from a woman in charge to all the men out there, including those featured on our pages: It may be a rich man’s world at the moment, but trust me, women love it too money. And we’re here to get some of yours.

Let us know what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor at [email protected].