MATILDA JOSLYN GAGE (New York, 1826_1898) download (1)

referred to as

“the woman who was ahead of the women who were ahead of their time,”

American author, activist, and lecturer

fought for

abolition of slavery

women's rights

Native Americans' rights

Family

mother: historian

father: doctor and abolitionist

made his home a station of the Underground Railroad

a network of routes, places, and people to help black slaves to escape from the South to the North of the US.

prepared Matilda to enter medical school

she was refused admission because she was a woman

husband: Henry Gage

5 children

Matilda did the same, even if she risked prison

career as activist

1850: started writing for newspapers

1869: helped found the New York State Woman Suffrage Association

President for 9 years

1870: wrote “Woman as Inventor"

she credited Catherine Littlefield Greene with the invention of the cotton gin (machine used in cotton plantations)

1890: formed the Woman’s National Liberal Union (WNLU)

because she didn't agree with conservative views in WNLU

supported women's rights

protested against the hypocrisy of the Statue of Liberty

a woman representing liberties that women didn't have

criticized the patriarchy and misogyny of the Church

advocated the right to divorce and reproductive autonomy

praised the way Native Americans treated men and women equally

supported Native American's rights

criticized the treatment of Native Americans by the federal government.

They gave her the name Karonienhawi (“she who holds the sky.” ) 

Matilda effect

term coined by scientist Margaret Rossiter in the 1990s

when women scientists receive less or no credit for their work in the field.

influenced reform movements in the United States