Phylis West Johnson and Tina Korani reveal how women are shaping the forthcoming Metaverse with a unique social perspective that promises to revolutionize society. Examining women in leadership across the top Metaverse companies through interviews and analysis, Johnson and Korani highlight women’s social contributions to the development of the Metaverse. These women, they contend, have fundamentally different conceptions of the Metaverse than those shown in mainstream depictions, foregrounding the potential to make meaningful change through content creation and social ideation over the potential to use it as a path to easy wealth. Although women play a large role in fueling virtual platforms through content creation, their overall decision-making power appears limited in the larger Metaverse, reflecting similar societal tensions to those that women face in reality. Ultimately, however, this book embraces the Metaverse as a landscape rich with potential, emphasizing not only women’s responsibility for creating this space but also the benefits to be gained from it as it influences the economic and political futures of humanity.
