We’ll never solve the feminization of power until we solve the masculinity of wealth.

Steinem’s line links two structural critiques: the gendering of political authority (“power”) and the gendering of economic privilege (“wealth”). She suggests that efforts to bring more women into leadership—often framed as “feminizing” power—will remain limited if wealth continues to be culturally coded as masculine and socially organized through male-dominated ownership, inheritance, and gatekeeping. In other words, representation in institutions of power cannot be separated from who controls resources. The quote also implies that changing the style or demographics of leadership is insufficient without confronting deeper economic arrangements that reproduce gender hierarchy.