Suffragist, historian of women, author and lecturer, woman's rights activist and theorist, advocate for civil rights, and abolitionist are just a few of the words that describe Matilda Joslyn Gage, but do not begin to indicate the enormous influence which she exerted on both the women's movement and more general movements of human rights and social responsibility. Along with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, Matilda Joslyn Gage was one of the "triumvirate" leaders of the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) and as such was one the 19th century woman's rights movements most important and influential women. One of the foremost nineteenth century historians of women, Gage provided the historical information that Stanton, Anthony and others used in their speeches and their writings. A prolific writer, she co-authored and co-edited The History of Woman Suffrage with Stanton while Anthony acted as publisher for the work. One of the most radical and incisive feminist theorists of her time, Gage's wide ranging intellect enabled her to discern the interconnections between social, economic, and historical forces that lead to women's oppression, oppression which she ascribed to four sources: church, state, workplace, and home.

      Author of the first two and the last two chapters of volume 1 of The History of Woman Suffrage, Gage was the true radical of the three woman's rights leaders. Of Gage's writings in The History of Woman Suffrage, Dale Spender writes that they "make Stanton look less than really radical, and Anthony positively reactionary." (Ideas, p. 313) Described by Ida Husted Harper in volume 4 of The History of Woman Suffrage as "one of the most logical and fearless writers of the day" (Spender, p. 310), by Eleanor Flexner in Century of Struggle: The Woman's Rights Movement in the United States as "one of the most scholarly of the women in the woman's rights movement (Spender, p. 310) , by Mary Daly in Gyn/Ecology as writing with "impressive erudition and passion," and with "boldness, accuracy and pride in her own tradition," and as "perceptive and learned" (Spender, p. 312), and by Dale Spender herself as having "astonishing breadth and clarity of understanding, as well as daring." (Spender, p. 323), Gage's writing has been lauded by the most knowledgeable historians of the woman's rights movement. Even Stanton hints at Gage's powerful writing commenting that "her pen was ever at work answering the attacks on the woman movement in the country and State journals" (Spender, p. 314).

      The power of Gage's writing comes from both her writing style and her method of analysis: she had some thing to say, she said it clearly, concisely, without apology, and without qualification, then she backed up her theories with myriad facts drawn from over 2000 years of human history. Perhaps more importantly, she placed women at the center of her analysis, making it easy to draw connections between events such as the sexual double standard, the appropriation of women's bodies, and the practice of witch-hunting, that more conventional historians have been unable to explain. Convinced of women's oppression, she nonetheless wrote about women who were influential and powerful in spite of their liabilities. For example, in fourteen short pages in Preceding Causes, the first chapter of The History of Woman Suffrage, Gage mentions over one hundred influential women as well as about a dozen men who were supporters of a more egalitarian society.

      A firm believer in an early matriarchy, Spender writes, "Until Gage's entry the discussion had been very much in terms of what women might do, once they were given the opportunity. Gage showed what they had done -- without opportunity -- and she challenged, fundamentally, the belief (held by Stanton as well) that history was a process of gradual improvement, an evolution towards a higher and more civilized goal, and that the time had now arisen for women to take their steps and to become full members of the civilized community. Suggesting that there had been women in the past who enjoyed more freedom and who had played a greater role in the running of society represented a startling new frame of reference for many, if not all of the women then involved in the woman's rights movement." (Spender, pp. 316-317)

      For Gage, women's history of past achievement was not an extra, but a fundamental part of her analysis. To Gage, men expropriated the fruits of women's physical and intellectual toil, growing rich and powerful on women's work. Because women did not benefit from the results of their own toil, the gap between men and women grew larger as women worked harder, further degrading women with each additional contribution to society. Gage's analysis would later be echoed and amplified by some of the foremost feminist theorists of the 20th century, including Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Mary Ritter Beard, and Mary Daly.

      Cofounder of the National Woman Suffrage Association in 1869 and later the New York State Woman Suffrage Association, Gage went on to hold important offices in both organizations, putting her theories into practice as both an organization builder and a social activist. In the pre-Civil War years, Gage's activism included the abolition movement; in the post-Civil War years, Gage's humanitarian activities included support of Native American rights. Indeed, she was such a strong supporter of Native American traditions, she was eventually adopted into the Wolf Clan of the Mohawk nation and given the name Karonienhawi (Sky Carrier). From her personal experience with the Mohawk nation, Gage knew that men and women living together harmoniously for their mutual benefit in a society that was more egalitarian than Christian American and European society was not a dream, it was a part of her lived reality.

      A fighter to the end, Gage died with pen in hand, writing her speech for the fiftieth anniversary of the Seneca Falls Convention.

      To adequately discuss all of Gage's contributions to womankind and humanity would take volumes. For her unswerving support of the woman's rights movement, for her commitment to human rights for all human beings, for her scholarly, incisive, penetrating writings, Matilda Joslyn Gage surely ranks as one of the most influential women of the second millennium.

References:

      Matilda Joslyn Gage, Sally Roesch Wagner (ed.), Woman, Church, and State, [Aberdeen, South Dakota: Sky Carrier Press, 1998]

      Dale Spender, Women of Ideas and What Men Have Done to Them [London: Pandora, 1982]

      Sally Roesch Wagner, Matilda Josyln Gage: She Who Holds the Sky, [Aberdeen, South Dakota: Sky Carrier Press, 1998]

      Sally Roesch Wagner, A Time of Protest, Suffragists Challenge the Republic:1870-1877 [Aberdeen, South Dakota: Sky Carrier Press, 1988]

      Sally Roesch Wagner, The Untold Story of the Iroquois Influence on Early Feminists, [Aberdeen, South Dakota: Sky Carrier Press, 1996]

      Doris Weatherford, American Women's History: An A to Z of People, Organizations, Issues, and Events [New York: Prentise Hall, 1994] pp. 142-143

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