“Why is the queen card worth less than the king?”
Maayan Segal, 16, asked her father this question four years ago on a family trip. Her father was unable to give her an answer. They decided that it was time for this to change, and in 2017 began designing a new set of playing cards.
Mayaan released a deck of cards three years later, where the king and queen are equal. ‘Queeng’ swaps two jacks for princesses and has male and female jokers. Since its initial release in 2020, over 50,000 decks have been sold.
Any card game can be played with a Queeng deck, and a winner can still be declared. The highest cards in the deck are the monarchs, then the duke and duchess, and then the princess and prince.
There is still a hierarchy in the deck. However, males and females are seen as equals.
After the initial launch, Queeng did receive negative feedback. The deck was equal in gender but did not represent all ethnicities. Maayan took this to heart and immediately began creating a Queeng second edition.
“We wanted to make a deck that truly represents our world and celebrates our beautiful range of cultures and appearances,” Maayan said on the Queeng website.
Her new deck launched in January 2021. The deck presents multi-ethnic face cards. The second edition is also offered as a left-handed deck and has different colored backing for multi-deck games.
“Teaching your kids about equality begins through play,” Maayan said.