Matilda Electa Joslyn Gage (
Cicero, New YorkCicero is a town in Onondaga County, New York, USA. The population was 27,982 at the 2000 census. The name of the town was assigned by a clerk interested in the classics, honoring Cicero, a Roman statesman....
, March 24, 1826 – March 18, 1898 in
ChicagoChicago is the largest city in the U.S. state of Illinois, and with more than 2.8 million people, the 3rd largest city in the United States...
) was a
suffragistWomen's suffrage is the right of women to vote, and historically includes the economic and political reform movement aimed at extending suffrage to women. The movement's modern origins lie in France in the 18th century. Of currently existing independent countries, New Zealand was the first to give...
, a
Native AmericanNative Americans in the United States is the phrase that describes indigenous peoples from North America now encompassed by the continental United States, including parts of Alaska and the island state of Hawaii. They comprise a large number of distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of...
activist, an
abolitionistAbolitionism was a movement to end the slave trade and emancipate slaves in western Europe and the Americas. The slave system aroused little protest until the 18th century, when rationalist thinkers of the Enlightenment criticized it for violating the rights of man, and Quaker and other evangelical...
, a freethinker, and a prolific author, who was "born with a hatred of oppression".
Early activities
Matilda Gage spent her childhood in a house which was a station of the
underground railroadThe Underground Railroad was an informal network of secret routes and safe houses used by 19th century Black slaves in the United States to escape to free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists who were sympathetic to their cause. The term is also applied to the abolitionists who aided the...
. She faced prison for her actions under the
Fugitive Slave Law of 1850The Fugitive Slave Law or Fugitive Slave Act was passed by the United States Congress on September 18, 1850, as part of the Compromise of 1850 between Southern slaveholding interests and Northern Free-Soilers. This was one of the most controversial acts of the 1850 compromise and heightened...
which criminalized assistance to escaped
slavesSlavery is a form of forced labor in which people are considered to be the property of others. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to receive compensation...
. Even though she was beset by both financial and physical (cardiac) problems throughout her life, her work for women's rights was extensive, practical, and often brilliantly executed.
Gage became involved in the women's rights movement in 1852 when she decided to speak at the
National Women's Rights ConventionThe National Women's Rights Convention was an annual series of meetings that increased the visibility of the early women's rights movement in the United States. First held in 1850 in Worcester, Massachusetts, the National Women's Rights Convention combined both male and female leadership, and...
in
Syracuse, New YorkSyracuse is a city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, United States, and the fifth most populous city in the state. At the 2000 census, the city population was 147,306, and its metropolitan area had a population of 732,117. It is the economic and educational hub of Central New...
. She served as president of the National Woman Suffrage Association from 1875 to 1876, and served as either Chair of the Executive Committee or Vice President for over twenty years. During the 1876 convention, she successfully argued against a group of police who claimed the association was holding an illegal assembly. They left without pressing charges.
Gage was considered to be more radical than either
Susan B. AnthonySusan Brownell Anthony was a prominent American civil rights leader who played a pivotal role in the 19th century women's rights movement to introduce women's suffrage into the United States. She traveled the United States and Europe, and gave 75 to 100 speeches every year on women's rights for 45...
or
Elizabeth Cady StantonElizabeth Cady Stanton was an American social activist abolitionist, and leading figure of the early woman's movement...
(with whom she wrote
History of Woman SuffrageHistory of Woman Suffrage was produced by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Matilda Joslyn Gage and Ida Husted Harper in six volumes from 1881 to 1922...
). Along with Stanton, she was a vocal critic of the
Christian ChurchChristian Church and church Christian Church and church Christian Church and church (Greek kyriakon, "thing belonging to the Lord"; also ekklesia (Latinized as ecclesia, "assembly") are used to denote both a Christian association of people and a place of worship. In the phenomenological sense there...
, which put her at odds with conservative suffragists such as
Frances WillardFrances Elizabeth Caroline Willard was anAmerican educator, temperance reformer, and women's suffragist.-Biography:...
and the
Woman's Christian Temperance UnionThe Woman's Christian Temperance Union is the oldest continuing non-sectarian women's organization worldwide. Founded in Evanston, Illinois in 1873, the group spearheaded the crusade for prohibition. Members in Fredonia, New York advanced their cause by entering saloons, singing, praying, and...
. Rather than arguing that women deserved the vote because their feminine morality would then properly influence legislation (as the WCTU did), she argued that they deserved suffrage as a 'natural right'.
Despite her opposition to the Church, Gage was in her own way deeply religious, and she joined Stanton's Revising Committee to write
The Woman's BibleThe Woman's Bible is a two-part book, written by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and a committee of 26 women, and published in 1895 and 1898 to challenge the traditional position of religious orthodoxy that woman should be subservient to man. By producing the book, Stanton wished to promote a radical...
. She became a theosophist and encouraged her children and their spouses to do so, some of whom did.
Editor of The National Citizen
Gage was well-educated and a prolific writer--the most gifted and educated woman of her age, claimed her devoted son-in-law,
L. Frank BaumLyman Frank Baum was an American author, poet, playwright, actor and independent filmmaker, best known today as the creator, along with illustrator W. W. Denslow, of one of the most popular books in American children's literature, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz...
. She corresponded with numerous newspapers, reporting on developments in the
woman suffrageWomen's suffrage is the right of women to vote, and historically includes the economic and political reform movement aimed at extending suffrage to women. The movement's modern origins lie in France in the 18th century. Of currently existing independent countries, New Zealand was the first to give...
movement. In 1878 she bought the
Ballot Box, a monthly journal of a
Toledo, OhioToledo is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio within the Great Lakes Region and the county seat of Lucas County. Named after Toledo, Spain, it is located on the western end of Lake Erie, on the Michigan border. It is the principal city in the Toledo Metropolitan Statistical Area. In the 2000 census,...
suffrage association, when its editor, Sarah R.L. Williams, decided to retire. Gage turned it into
The National Citizen and Ballot Box, explaining her intentions for the paper thus:
- Its especial object will be to secure national protection to women citizens in the exercise of their rights to vote...it will oppose Class Legislation of whatever form...Women of every class, condition, rank and name will find this paper their friend (Reference: "Prospectus", page 1)
Gage became its primary editor for the next three years (until 1881), producing and publishing essays on a wide range of issues. Each edition bore the words '
The Pen Is Mightier Than The Sword"The pen is mightier than the sword" is a metonymic adage coined by English author Edward Bulwer-Lytton in 1839 for his play Richelieu; Or the Conspiracy. The play was about Cardinal Richelieu, though in the author's words "license with dates and details.....
', and included regular columns about prominent women in history and female inventors. Gage wrote clearly, logically, and often with a dry wit and a well-honed sense of irony. Writing about laws which allowed a man to will his children to a guardian unrelated to their mother, Gage observed:
- It is sometimes better to be a dead man than a live woman. (Reference: "All The Rights I Want" page 2.)
Political activities
As a result of the campaigning of the New York State Woman Suffrage Association under Gage, the state of New York granted female suffrage for electing members of the school boards. Gage ensured that every woman in her area (
Fayetteville, New YorkFayetteville is a village located in Onondaga County, New York, United States. As of the 2000 U.S. Census, the village had a population of 4,190. The village is named after Lafayette, a national hero of both France and the United States...
) had the opportunity to vote by writing letters making them aware of their rights, and sitting at the polls making sure nobody was turned away.
In 1871, Gage was part of a group of 10 women who attempted to vote. Reportedly, she stood by and argued with the polling officials on behalf of each individual woman. She supported
Victoria WoodhullVictoria Claflin Woodhull was an American suffragist who was described by Gilded Age newspapers as a leader of the American woman's suffrage movement in the 19th century. She became a colorful and notorious symbol for women's rights, free love, and spiritualism as she fought against corruption and...
and (later) Ulysses S Grant in the 1872 presidential election. In 1873 she defended Susan B. Anthony when Anthony was placed on trial for having voted in that election, making compelling legal and moral arguments.
In 1884, Gage was an Elector-at-Large for Belva Lockwood and the
Equal Rights PartyThe Equal Rights Party was the name for several different nineteenth century political parties in the United States.The first party was the Locofocos, during the 1830s and 1840s....
.
Founder of the Women's National Liberal Union
Gage unsuccessfully tried to prevent the conservative takeover of the women's suffrage movement. Susan B. Anthony who had helped to found the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA), was primarily concerned with gaining the vote, an outlook which Gage found too narrow. Conservative suffragists were drawn into the organisation, and these women tended not to support general social reform, or attacks on the church.
The
American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA)The American Woman Suffrage Association was formed in November 1869 in response to a split in the American Equal Rights Association over the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Its founders, who supported the Fifteenth Amendment, included Lucy Stone, and Henry Blackwell...
, part of the conservative wing of the suffrage movement (and formerly at odds with the National), was open to the prospect of merging with the NWSA under Anthony, while Anthony was working toward unifying the suffrage movement under the single goal of gaining the vote. The merger of the two organizations, pushed through by
Lucy StoneLucy Stone was a prominent American abolitionist and suffragist, and a vocal advocate and organizer promoting rights for women. In 1839, Stone was the first woman from Massachusetts to earn a college degree. She spoke out for women's rights and against slavery at a time when women were discouraged...
,
Alice Stone BlackwellAlice Stone Blackwell was an American feminist, journalist and human rights advocate.-Biography:...
and Anthony, produced the
National American Suffrage AssociationThe National American Woman Suffrage Association was created in 1890, when two competing American women's suffrage advocacy groups united. In doing so, the U.S. had a much stronger Women's Suffrage organization....
(NAWSA) in 1890. While Stanton and Gage maintained their radical positions, they found that the only women's issue really unifying the NAWSA was the move for suffrage.
This prompted Gage to establish the Women's National Liberal Union (WNLU) in 1890, of which she was president until her death (by stroke) in 1898. Attracting more radical members than NAWSA, the WNLU was the perfect mouthpiece for her attacks on religion. She became the editor of the official journal of the WNLU,
The Liberal Thinker.
Gage was an avid opponent of the various Christian churches, and she strongly supported the
separation of church and stateSeparation of church and state is a political and legal doctrine that government and religious institutions are to be kept separate and independent from each other...
, believing "
that the greatest injury to the world has arisen from theological laws,-from a union of Church and State". She wrote in October 1881,
- Believing this country to be a political and not a religious organisation...the editor of the NATIONAL CITIZEN will use all her influence of voice and pen against "Sabbath Laws", the uses of the "Bible
The Bible contains the central religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. Modern Judaism generally recognizes a single set of canonical books known as the Tanakh, or Hebrew Bible, as it is written almost entirely in the Hebrew language, with some small portions in Aramaic...
in School," and pre-eminently against an amendment which shall introduce "GodGod is a deity in theistic and deistic religions and other belief systems, representing either the sole deity in monotheism, or a principal deity in polytheism....
in the ConstitutionThe Constitution of the United States of America is the supreme law of the United States. It is the foundation and source of the legal authority underlying the existence of the United States of America and the federal government of the United States...
." (Reference: "God in the Constitution", page 2)
In 1893, she published
Woman, Church and State, a book which outlined the variety of ways in which Christianity had oppressed women and reinforced
patriarchalPatriarchy is the structuring of family units based on the man, as father figure, having primary authority over the rest of the family members. Patriarchy also refers to the role of men in society more generally where men take primary responsibility over the welfare of the community as a whole...
systems. It was wide-ranging and built extensively upon arguments and ideas she had previously put forth in speeches (and in a chapter of
History of Woman Suffrage which bore the same name).
Views on social issues
Like many other suffragists, Gage considered
abortionAn abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo. An abortion can occur spontaneously due to complications during pregnancy or can be induced, in humans and other species...
a regrettable tragedy, although her views on the subject were more complex than simple opposition. In 1868, she wrote a letter to
The Revolution (a women's rights paper edited by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and
Parker PillsburyParker Pillsbury was an American minister and advocate for abolition and women's rights.Pillsbury was born in Hamilton, Massachusetts...
), supporting the typical women's rights view of the time that abortion was an institution supported, dominated and furthered by men. Gage opposed abortion on principle, blaming it on the 'selfish desire' of husbands to maintain their wealth by reducing their offspring:
- "The short article on "Child Murder" in your paper of March 12 that touched a subject which lies deeper down in woman's wrongs than any other. This is the denial of the right to herself ... nowhere has the marital union of the sexes been one in which woman has had control over her own body.
- Enforced motherhood is a crime against the body of the mother and the soul of the child....But the crime of abortion is not one in which the guilt lies solely or even chiefly with the woman....I hesitate not to assert that most of this crime of "child murder," "abortion," "infanticide," lies at the door of the male sex.
- Many a woman has laughed a silent, derisive laugh at the decisions of eminent medical and legal authorities, in cases of crimes committed against her as a woman. Never, until she sits as juror on such trials, will or can just decisions be rendered." (Reference: "Is Woman Her Own?" pages 215-216.)
Gage was quite concerned with the rights of a woman over her own life and body. In 1881 she wrote, on the subject of
divorceDivorce or dissolution of marriage is the final termination of a marriage, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between two persons...
:
- "When they preach as does Rev. Crummell, of "the hidden mystery of generation, the wondrous secret of propagated life, committed to the trust of woman," they bring up a self-evident fact of nature which needs no other inspiration, to show the world that the mother, and the not the father, is the true head of the family, and that she should be able to free herself from the adulterous husband, keeping her own body a holy temple for its divine-human uses, of which as priestess and holder of the altar she alone should have control. (Reference: "A Sermon Against Woman," page 2.)
Other feminists of the period referred to "voluntary motherhood," achieved through consensual nonprocreative sexual practices, periodic or permanent sexual abstinence, or (most importantly) the right of a woman (especially a wife) to refuse sex.
Works about
Native Americans in the United StatesNative Americans in the United States is the phrase that describes indigenous peoples from North America now encompassed by the continental United States, including parts of Alaska and the island state of Hawaii. They comprise a large number of distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of...
by Lewis Henry Morgan and Henry Rowe Schoolcraft also influenced Gage. She decried the brutal treatment of Native Americans in her writings and public speeches. She was angered that the
Federal government of the United StatesThe federal government of the United States is the central government entity established by the United States Constitution, which shares sovereignty over the United States with the governments of the individual U.S. states. The federal government has three branches: the legislative, executive, and...
attempted to confer citizenship (including
suffrageSuffrage is the civil right to vote, or the exercise of that right. It is also called political franchise or simply the franchise. Suffrage may apply to elections, but also extends to initiatives and referendums...
) upon Native Americans (who, Gage argued, opposed taxation, and generally did not seek citizenship) while still withholding the vote from women. She wrote in 1878:
- "That the Indians have been oppressed - are now, is true, but the United States has treaties with them, recognising them as distinct political communities, and duty towards them demands not an enforced citizenship but a faithful living up to its obligations on the part of the government." (Reference: "Indian Citizenship," page 2)
In her 1893 work
Woman, Church and State she cited the
IroquoisThe Iroquois , also known as the Haudenosaunee or the "People of the Longhouse", are an indigenous people of North America. In the 16th century or earlier, the Iroquois came together in an association known as the Iroquois League, or the "League of Peace and Power"...
society, among others, as a 'Matriarchate' in which women had true power, noting that a system of descent through the female line and female property rights led to a more equal relationship between men and women. Gage spent time among the Iroquois and received the name Karonienhawi - "she who holds the sky" - upon her initiation into the Wolf Clan. She was admitted into the Iroquois Council of Matrons.
Family
A daughter of the early abolitionist Hezekiah Joslyn, Gage was the wife of Henry Hill Gage, with whom she had five children: Charles Henry (who died in infancy), Helen Leslie, Thomas Clarkson, Julia Louise, and Maud. Gage maintained residence in Fayetteville, New York for the majority of her life. Though Gage was cremated, there is a memorial stone at Fayetteville Cemetery that bears her slogan "There is a word sweeter than Mother, Home or Heaven. That word is Liberty."
Maud, who was ten years younger than Julia, initially horrified her mother when she chose to marry
The Wonderful Wizard of OzThe Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a children's novel written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W.W. Denslow. It was originally published by the George M...
author
L. Frank BaumLyman Frank Baum was an American author, poet, playwright, actor and independent filmmaker, best known today as the creator, along with illustrator W. W. Denslow, of one of the most popular books in American children's literature, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz...
at a time when he was a struggling
actorAn actor or actress is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
with only a handful of plays (of which only
The Maid of ArranThe Maid of Arran is an 1882 musical play by L. Frank Baum, writing and performing under the pseudonym, "Louis F. Baum", based on the novel A Princess of Thule by William Black. The play resets the novel from Scotland's Outer Hebrides to Ireland...
survives) to his writing credit. However, a few minutes after the initial announcement, Gage started laughing, apparently realizing that her emphasis on all individuals making up their own minds was not lost on her headstrong daughter, who gave up a chance at a law career when the opportunity for women was rare. Gage spent six months of every year with Maud and Frank, and died in the Baum home in Chicago, Illinois in 1898.
Gage’s son Thomas Clarkson Gage and his wife Sophia had a daughter named Dorothy Louise Gage, who was born in Bloomington, IL, on June 11, 1898 and died just five months later on Nov. 11, 1898. The death so upset the child’s aunt Maud, who had always longed for a daughter, that she required medical attention. Thomas Clarkson Gage’s child was the namesake of her uncle Frank Baum’s famed fictional character,
Dorothy GaleDorothy Gale is a fictional character, the protagonist of many of the Oz novels by American author L. Frank Baum and best friend of Oz's ruler, Princess Ozma. Dorothy first appears in Baum's classic children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and reappears in most of its sequels. She also is the...
. In 1996, Dr. Sally Roesch Wagner, a biographer of Matilda Joslyn Gage, located young Dorothy’s grave in Bloomington. A memorial was erected in the child’s memory at her gravesite on May 21, 1997. This child is often mistaken for her cousin of the same name, Dorothy Louise Gage (1883-1889), Helen Leslie (Gage) Gage’s child. As theosophists, both the Baums and the Gages believed in
reincarnationReincarnation, literally "to be made flesh again", is a doctrine or metaphysical belief that some essential part of a living being survives death to be reborn in a new body. This essential part is often referred to as the spirit or soul, the "higher" or "true" self, "divine spark", or "I"...
, and thought this child might have been Matilda Joslyn Gage, whose personal spark is apparently written into the character.
In
The Dreamer of Oz: The L. Frank Baum StoryThe Dreamer of Oz: The L. Frank Baum Story is a film that stars John Ritter as Lyman Frank Baum, the man who wrote The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and eighteen of the other Oz books. Also starring in this TV movie was Annette O'Toole as Baum's supportive wife Maud, and Rue McClanahan who played Baum's...
, Gage was played by
Rue McClanahanRue McClanahan is an American actress, known for her roles as Vivian Cavender Harmon on Maude, Fran Crowley on Mama's Family and Blanche Devereaux on The Golden Girls...
, whose relationship with Frank was wrongly portrayed as antagonistic, and falsely presented Gage as the inspiration for the
Wicked Witch of the WestThe Wicked Witch of the West is a character in the fictional Land of Oz created by American author L. Frank Baum in his children's book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The character also figures prominently in the classic 1939 movie based on Baum's book...
.
Annette O'TooleAnnette O'Toole is an American actress and dancer, as well as an Academy Award-nominated songwriter. She is known for her role of Martha Kent, the mother of Clark Kent on television's Smallville....
played Maud, and
Nancy MorganMorgan is the daughter of Marjorie and Samuel A. Morgan, Jr., and a niece of John "Red" Morgan, who was awarded the Medal of Honor for his bravery during World War II in 1943, events which were later fictionalized in the movie Twelve O'Clock High.Morgan was married for 19 years to the late actor...
and
Pat SkipperWilliam Patterson "Pat" Skipper is an American television actor, film actor and voice actor. Pat is probably best known for his television work on such shows as X-Files and Boston Legal...
played Helen and Charles, respectively.
Publications
Gage acted as editor of
The National Citizen and Ballot Box, May 1878 - October 1881, (available on microfilm) and as editor of
The Liberal Thinker, from 1890 - onwards. These publications offered her the opportunity to publish essays and opinion pieces. The following is a partial list of published works:
- "Is Woman Her Own?", published in The Revolution, April 9, 1868, ed. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Parker Pillsbury. pp 215-216.
- "Prospectus", published in The National Citizen and Ballot Box, ed. Matilda E. J. Gage. May 1878 p 1.
- "Indian Citizenship", published in The National Citizen and Ballot Box, ed. Matilda E. J. Gage. May 1878 p 2.
- "All The Rights I Want", published in The National Citizen and Ballot Box, ed. Matilda E. J. Gage. January 1879 p 2.
- "A Sermon Against Woman", published in The National Citizen and Ballot Box, ed. Matilda E. J. Gage. September 1881 p 2.
- "God in the Constitution", published in The National Citizen and Ballot Box, ed. Matilda E. J. Gage. October 1881 p 2.
- Woman As Inventor, 1870, Fayetteville, NY: F.A. Darling
- History of Woman Suffrage, 1881, Chapters by Cady Stanton, E., Anthony, S.B., Gage, M. E. J., Harper, I.H. (published again in 1985 by Salem NH: Ayer Company)
- The Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer, 14 and 21 March, 1891, editor and editorials. It is possible she wrote some previous unsigned editorials, rather than L. Frank Baum, for whom she completed the paper's run.
- Woman, Church and State, 1893 (published again in 1980 by Watertowne MA: Persephone Press)
The Matilda effect
In 1993, scientific historian Margaret W. Rossiter coined the term "Matilda effect", after Matilda Gage, to identify the social situation where woman scientists inaccurately receive less credit for their scientific work than an objective examination of their actual effort would reveal. The "Matilda effect" is a corollary to the "
Matthew effectThe Matthew effect in sociology is the phenomenon that "the rich get richer and the poor get poorer". Those who possess power and economic or social capital can leverage those resources to gain more power or capital. The Matthew effect results in a power law distribution of resources. The term...
", which was postulated by the sociologist
Robert K. MertonRobert King Merton was a distinguished American sociologist perhaps best known for having coined the phrase "self-fulfilling prophecy," the explanation for how a belief or an expectation, correct or incorrect, affects the outcome of a situation or the way a person or a group will behave...
.
External links