Think of the ladies
by digby
When you hear some right winger throw out the “fact” that women have never historically achieved or contributed much to civilization compared to men, don’t start thinking about all the structural impediments that have been put in the way of female accomplishment, like denial of education, legal rights or the fact that they were often burdened with decades of constant child-bearing. Those are valid reasons, of course. But who says women haven’t achieved? Think of this story about the inventor of Monopoly. Guess what? It wasn’t the guy they always said it was. It was a woman. Like a lot of women down through the centuries she just didn’t get the credit:
It turns out that Monopoly’s origins begin not with Darrow 80 years ago, but decades before with a bold, progressive woman named Elizabeth Magie, who until recently has largely been lost to history, and in some cases deliberately written out of it.
Magie lived a highly unusual life. Unlike most women of her era, she supported herself and didn’t marry until the advanced age of 44. In addition to working as a stenographer and a secretary, she wrote poetry and short stories and did comedic routines onstage. She also spent her leisure time creating a board game that was an expression of her strongly held political beliefs.
Photo
Elizabeth Magie Phillips, in a circa 1937 portrait. Credit The Strong in Rochester, New York
Magie filed a legal claim for her Landlord’s Game in 1903, more than three decades before Parker Brothers began manufacturing Monopoly. She actually designed the game as a protest against the big monopolists of her time — people like Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller.She created two sets of rules for her game: an anti-monopolist set in which all were rewarded when wealth was created, and a monopolist set in which the goal was to create monopolies and crush opponents. Her dualistic approach was a teaching tool meant to demonstrate that the first set of rules was morally superior.
And yet it was the monopolist version of the game that caught on, with Darrow claiming a version of it as his own and selling it to Parker Brothers. While Darrow made millions and struck an agreement that ensured he would receive royalties, Magie’s income for her creation was reported to be a mere $500.
Amid the press surrounding Darrow and the nationwide Monopoly craze, Magie lashed out. In 1936 interviews with The Washington Post and The Evening Star she expressed anger at Darrow’s appropriation of her idea. Then elderly, her gray hair tied back in a bun, she hoisted her own game boards before a photographer’s lens to prove that she was the game’s true creator.
“Probably, if one counts lawyer’s, printer’s and Patent Office fees used up in developing it,” The Evening Star said, “the game has cost her more than she made from it.”
In 1948, Magie died in relative obscurity, a widow without children. Neither her headstone nor her obituary mentions her role in the creation of Monopoly.
I would guess there are millions of such stories in human history. And yes, men had their ideas stolen from them by sharpies and grifters too. But I have a sneaking feeling that there were many, many more women whose contributions to civilization were “appropriated.” Why not? What were they going to do about it?
h/t to MS
.