One of the most influential and obscure of the 19th century female reformers, Matilda Joslyn Gage was a suffragist, historian of women, author and lecturer, woman's rights activist and theorist, advocate and activist for civil rights, and abolitionist. She would be comfortable today in any gathering of feminists for she championed many causes which most feminists today freely support: equality for all human beings in all aspects of human endeavor regardless of race, color, creed, country of origin, or sex. Her concerns ranged across the four major institutions of society: church, state, family, and the workplace, writing about all of them, denouncing each in turn. She decried the unequal treatment of the prostitute and her client, the "practice of non-conviction or of pardoning" in rape trials, unequal pay, the double standard, wife battering, the sexual abuse of female children and much, much more. On the other hand, as an historian of women, she trumpeted the accomplishments of women, rediscovering the works, especially feminist writings, of women long dead and almost forgotten. Thanks in part to her work, modern feminist historians can learn about powerful ancient Greek, classical Roman, and early modern European educators, artists, writers, and statesmen.

      Attracted to the woman's movement the moment she read about it in the local newspaper, Gage debuted at the Syracuse convention in 1852. Having prepared a speech and being ignorant of the rules of a convention, Gage waited in her seat until she gathered the courage to ask Lucretia Mott for permission to speak. Her speech was a resounding success, Lucretia Mott asked Gage for permission to print it as a pamphlet, and Gage immediately joined the inner circle of influential woman's rights activists.

      Gage went on to author many of the most influential works of the 19th century woman's rights movement and to hold prominent positions (at various times, executive secretary, secretary, and president) in both the New York Woman Suffrage Association and the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA), which she helped to found. She authored the Woman's Rights Catechism, a pamphlet in question and answer format with short answers to questions frequently asked of suffragists; Who Planned the Tennessee Campaign?, attributing to Anna Ella Carroll the planning of the Tennessee Campaign, a major campaign of the Civil War which brought US Grant to prominence; and Women as Inventor, listing many forgotten female inventors. She contributed to the suffrage newspaper The Revolution and published the official organ of the NWSA, The National Citizen and the Ballot Box, from 1878 to 1881. Today she is probably her best known for co-authoring with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony the first three volumes of The History of Woman Suffrage. She also wrote numerous non-fiction articles and pamphlets about history, especially women's history, an endless series of tracts for the woman's rights and woman's suffrage movements, and innumerable letters to the editor on a variety of issues. Not content with writing nonfiction works, she also authored numerous fictional short stories, all with strong female characters who functioned as role models for young girls.

      Gage's concern for human rights went far beyond women's rights; she also championed the rights of slaves, Negroes, and Native Americans, eventually being adopted into the wolf clan of the Mohawk nation and being given the name Ka-ron-ien-ha-wi (Sky Carrier). Family lore has it that her home was a stop on the Underground Railroad. During the 1870's, Gage wrote a series of controversial articles decrying the brutal and unjust treatment American Indians had received. Living in proximity to Native Americans and interacting with them on a daily basis, Gage, wrote about the superiority of the Six Nation Iroquois Confederacy's government, a system in which the power between the sexes was nearly equal. This indigenous practice of woman's rights became her vision.

      When Anthony was arrested for attempting to vote in 1871, Gage alone among the NWSA women saw the importance of this political trial, and came to Anthony's aid, stumping the county speaking to prospective jurors about the constitutionality of woman suffrage. When the constitutional / court route to suffrage failed, Gage created a unique suffrage strategy in 1877. Just as convicted male criminals who had lost the right to vote could directly petition Congress and regain their suffrage, Gage argued that women should be permitted to petition Congress directly to gain their suffrage. Suffrage petitions flooded Congress, the technique failed, but the resulting publicity exposed a terrible injustice: although a man convicted of a felony could regain the right to vote (even many former Civil War Confederate Officers, officers who were openly disloyal to the Federal Government, were given back their right to vote), a law-abiding, tax-paying woman could not. In the process, she gained the cause of woman suffrage many supporters.

      Her woman's rights activism took a physical form, too, when she engaged in petition drives, picketed, conducted get out the vote drives, and managed electoral campaigns for female school board candidates. She participated in both the 1876 Centennial Woman's Protest in Philadelphia on July 4 and in the demonstration against the Statue of Liberty at its official unveiling. Gage was appalled that Liberty would be represented as a woman, the most degraded of humans on the earth.

      After the merger of the National Woman Suffrage Association and the American Woman Suffrage Association, which Gage considered treasonous on the part of her friend, S. B. Anthony, Gage formed the Woman's National Liberal Union, the first national organization in the US to espouse free thought .

      But the work for which Gage wanted to be remembered was her magnus opus, Woman, Church, and State. By far the absolute best analysis of women's oppression by the combination of the church and the state which I have read, Gage exposes the history of misogyny in both institutions, misogyny which was so commonplace as to be considered normative. Unlike many of her contemporaries who believed that women's lives were slowly improving, Gage believed in an early matriarchy, an era in which women ruled and the world was safe for women and children. Gage believed that women's lives deteriorated under later religious institutions, especially Christianity. Gage addressed the creation story in Genesis in several places in Woman, Church, and State.

      Always perceptive, Gage opens Chapter 8, Women and Work, with her analysis of the creation story in Genesis. Skipping to the end of the story, Gage homes in on God's predictions at the end of the story, the predictions which most theologians considered God's curse on mankind and womankind. She points out the much greater severity of the curse placed on man than of the one placed on woman: he gets all of the world's work, she gets an occasional childbirth. She notes that man, with the use of labor saving devices, has been permitted to mitigate his curse, while woman, denied the use of painkillers during childbirth, has not been permitted to mitigate the severity of her curse. Why, she asks, do theologians interpret God's words about man's future as a prediction while at the same time interpreting God's words about woman's future as a proscription? And why, she also asks, has mankind been allowed to shift part of his punishment, all of the world's work, to women? With that, here is Gage's opening to her chapter on Women and Work.

      "And unto Adam the Lord said: "Cursed be the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thous shalt eat the herbs of the field; in the sweat of they face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground, for dust thou art and into dust thou shalt return." Genesis 3: 17-19

      Upon Man was pronounced the curse of the world's work. The Bible declares it was because of his sinfulness that the earth was to be cursed; for his punishment that he was to eat of it in sorrow all the days of his life; because of his wickedness that it was to bear thorns and thistles; and in consequence of his disobedience that he was to eat the herb of the field in the sweat of his face until he returned unto the ground from whence he came. No curse of work was pronounced upon woman; her "curse" was of an entirely different character. it was a positive command of the Lord God Almighty that upon man alone the work of the world should fall and this work he was to perform in sorrow and the sweat of his brow.

      Thus far this book has been devoted to a consideration of the doctrines taught by Christian men in regard to woman's curse. And so earnestly has this doctrine been proclaimed that man seems to have entirely forgotten the curse also pronounced upon himself (or if he has not forgotten, he has neglected to see its full import) and in his anxiety to keep woman in subordination, he has placed his curse also upon her -- thus thwarting the express command of God. It is therefore just to devote a few pages to the consideration of man's curse and an investigation of the spirit in which he has accepted the penalty imposed upon him for his share in the transgression which cost him Paradise.

      At the commencement of this investigation it will be well to remember that Eve was not banished from the Garden of Eden. Adam alone was cast out and to prohibit his reentrance, not hers, the angel with the flaming sword was set as guardian at its gates.

      We must also recall the opposition of the church, through the ages, to all attempts made toward the amelioration of woman's suffering at time of her bringing forth children, upon the plea that such mitigation was a direct interference with the mandate of the Almighty and an inexcusable sin. It will be recalled that in the chapter upon witchcraft, the bitter hostility of the church to the use of anesthetics by the women physicians of that period was shown and its opposing sermons, its charges of heresy, its burning at the stake as methods of enforcing that opposition.

      Man, ever unjust to woman, has been no less so in the field of work. He has not taken upon himself the entire work of the world as commanded, but has ever imposed a large portion of it upon woman. Neither do all men labor, but thousands in idleness evade the "curse" of work pronounced upon all men alike.

      The church -- in its teachings and through its non-preaching [of] the duty of man in this respect -- is guilty of that defiance of the Lord God it has ever been so ready to attribute to woman. The pulpit does not proclaim that this curse of work rests upon any man, does not preach this command to the idle, the profligate, the rich or the honored, but, on the contrary, shows less sympathy and less respect for the laborer than for the idle man. the influence of this neglect of its duty by the church has permeated the Christian world. We everywhere find contempt for the man who, amid thorns and thistles, tills the ground, obeying his primal curse of earning his bread by the sweat of his brow, and everywhere see respect accorded to the man who, by whatever means of honest or dishonest capacity evades his curse, taking no share in the labors of the field nor earning his bread [by] the sweat of his brow.

      Anesthetics have justly been called the greatest boon ever conferred by science upon mankind. But after the persecution of the witchcraft period a knowledge of their use was lost to the world for many hundred years. But when rediscovered during the present century, their employment in mitigating the sufferings of the expectant mother again met with the same opposition as during the Middle Ages, upon the same ground -- of its interference with "the curse" pronounced by God upon woman. The question of their use as such time was violently discussed at ministerial gatherings. And when Sir James Simpson, physician to Queen Victoria, employed them at the birth of the later princes and princesses, he was assailed by the pulpit and press as having sacrilegiously thwarted "the curse." When the practice was introduced into the United States, prominent New England clergymen preached against their use upon the same ground -- of its being an impious frustration of the curse of the Almighty upon woman.

      But the history of Christendom does not show an instance in which the church or the pulpit ever opposed labor by woman upon the ground of its being an interference with the curse pronounced upon man. [On] the contrary, her duty to labor has been taught by church and state alike; having met no opposition unless, perchance, she has entered upon some remunerative employment theretofore monopolized by man with the purpose of applying its proceeds to her own individual use. Nor has objection then arisen because of the work, but solely because of its money-earning qualities. an investigation of the laws concerning woman -- their origin, growth, and by whom chiefly sustained -- will enable us to judge how far they are founded upon the eternal principles of justice and how far emanating from ignorance, superstition and love of power, which is the basis of all despotism. Viewing her through the Christian Ages, we find woman has chiefly been regarded as an element of wealth; the labor of wife and daughters, the sale of the latter in the prostitution of a loveless marriage, having been an universally extended form of domestic slavery, one which the latest court decisions recognize as still extant. " pp. 250-252

      "A consistent carrying out by man of his "curse" would cause him to take upon himself the entire work of the world; not alone tilling the soil, but all household labor-- the baking and brewing, the cooking and cleaning and all the multidinous forms of work which make such wearisomely incessant demands upon woman's strength and time. From all sewing, knitting, crocheting [and] embroidering, she would be freed. And even beyond this, under the principles of his "curse" upon man should fall all the work of rearing children, as woman's "curse" -- so often quoted -- does not refer to aught but bringing them to life in sorrow and suffering." p. 266

      A 19th century feminist historian of women, Gage finished the chapter 'The Church of Today' by excoriating the men who use a misogynist interpretation of scripture to oppress women and by discussing the powerful defenses of women in the writings of earlier feminist commentators on the creation story in Genesis. She writes:

      "From all these incontrovertible facts in church and state we see that both religion and government are essentially masculine in their present forms and development. All the evils that have resulted from dignifying one sex and degrading the other may be traced to one central error: a belief in a trinity of masculine gods, in one from which the feminine element is wholly eliminated. And yet in the scriptural account of the simultaneous creation of man and woman, the text plainly recognizes the feminine as well as the masculine element in the God head, and declares the equality of the sexes in goodness, wisdom and power.

      And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and so God created man in his own image: in the image of god created He him, male and female created He them, and gave them dominion over the fish of the sea and the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. Genesis 1: 26-27.

      In nothing has the ignorance and weakness of the church been more fully shown than in its controversies in regard to creation. From time of the "fathers" to the present hour -- despite its assertion and its dogmas -- the church has ever been engaged in discussions upon the Garden of Eden, the serpent, woman, man and God as connected in one inseparable relation. Amid all the evils attributed to woman -- her loss of Paradise, introduction of sin into the world, and the consequent degradation of mankind -- yet Eve, and through her all women, [has] found occasional defenders. A book printed in Amsterdam, 1700, in a series of eleven reasons, threw the greater culpability upon Adam, saying:
      1. The serpent tempted her before she thought of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and suffered herself to be persuaded that not well understood his meaning.
      2. That believing that God had not given such prohibition she ate the fruit.
      3. Sinning through ignorance she committed a less heinous crime than Adam.
      4. That Eve did not necessarily mean the penalty of eternal death, for God's decree only imported that man should die if he sinned against his conscience.
      5. That God might have inflicted death on Eve without injustice, yet he resolved, so great is his mercy toward his works, to let her live, in (that) she had not sinned maliciously.
      6. That being exempted from the punishment contained in God's decree, she might retain all the prerogatives of her sex except those that were not incidental with the infirmities to which God condemned her.
      7. That she retained in particulars the prerogative of bringing forth children who had a right to eternal happiness on condition of obeying the new Adam.
      8. That as mankind was to proceed from Adam and Eve, Adam was preserved alive only because his preservation was necessary for the procreation of children.
      9. That it was by accident therefore, that the sentence of death was not executed on him, but that otherwise he was more (justly) punished than his wife.
      10. That she was not driven out from Paradise as he was but was only obliged to leave it to find out Adam in the earth; and that it was full privilege of returning thither again.
      11. That the children of Adam and Eve were subject to eternal damnation, not a proceeding from Eve, but as proceeding from Adam.

      In 1580 - but three hundred years since - an inquiry set on foot as to the language of Paradise resulted in the statement that God spoke Danish; Adam, Swedish and the serpent, French. Eve doubtless was conceded to have spoke all three languages, as she conversed with God, with Adam and with the serpent. Hieronymus, a Father of the church, credited Eve with possessing a much finer constitution than Adam [possessed] and, in that respect, as superior to him.

      Thus, during the ages, the church through its "Fathers" and its priests has devoted itself to a discussion of the most trivial questions concerning woman, as well as to the formation of most oppressive canon against her. And although, as shown, she has found an occasional defender and even claimants for her superiority upon certain points, yet such discussions have had no effect upon the general view in which the church has presented her, as on accursed of God and man." pages 309-312

      Matilda Joslyn Gage and Sally Roesch Wagner (editor), (1893)Woman, Church and State, reprinted in 1998, Sky Carrier Press

      Sally Roesch Wagner, She Who Holds the Sky 1998, Sky Carrier Press

      See also the Matilda Joslyn Gage Website, About Gage page at http://www.pinn.net/~sunshine/gage/features/about.html

Return to Women's History Month 2000 Table of Contents

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