The math behind:
Overview
In our world, cities have always seemed unstoppable — swallowing landscapes, forests, and open skies in the name of growth. Every year, we paved more and planted less. We called it progress. But in the Sheconomy timeline, growth took a different path. When women gained equal power in 1925, the economy’s heartbeat shifted. Investments began to flow toward care — for people, for communities, and for the planet itself. Policies written by women placed environmental health on par with economic health. Conservation was no longer an afterthought; it became a measure of prosperity. Over time, this changed everything. Instead of forests falling to expansion, cities began to grow alongside them. By 2016, global investment in biodiversity reached the tipping point that reversed deforestation entirely. For the first time in modern history, the planet grew greener — forests expanded faster than cities.
Since 1990, the world has lost 420 million hectares of forest to deforestation — an area larger than the entire European Union.
Cities occupy just 2% of Earth’s land, yet drive over 75% of global resource consumption.
Roughly one-third of global tree-cover loss since 2001 is from permanent land-use change, meaning forests will not regenerate naturally.
Currently, only 0.12% of global GDP is invested in biodiversity and forest conservation — less than one-fifth of what’s required to reverse deforestation.
Events that led up to it
1925: Alternate reality begins
In this experiment, we went back 100 years and made women and men equal in the economy. Key changes included making women 50% of company executives, 50% of stock market investors, 50% of the startup founders getting funded, and 50% of financial decision makers at home.
1925
Equality changes everything
Women and men share equal power in the economy, redefining growth to include environmental health.
1950s
Environmental economics takes root
Balanced leadership reframes conservation as an essential part of prosperity.
1970s
Conservation funding multiplies
Women-led governments invest 4× more in forest and biodiversity protection than their real-world counterparts.
1990s
Global conservation finance reforms
Women-controlled banks and funds direct 0.5% of global GDP toward land restoration.
2016
Forests expand faster than cities
For the first time, the planet adds more forest each year than it loses to urbanization.
