Researching the life of feminist Gloria Steinem can lead to the most amazing surprises! I happily share this surprise with you!
Here’s how it went:
I was searching for the written source of this comment by Gloria about a 19th century suffragist, abolitionist, and advocate for Indigenous rights whom she greatly admired:
“the woman who was ahead of the women who were ahead of their time.” [1]
Gloria Steinem was referring to Matilda Joslyn Gage.
Never heard of her?
There is a reason for that.
We do know about the other women to whom Gloria was referring as “ahead of their time”
They were Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony who famously fought for the rights of women, particularly the right to vote.
Although Stanton, Anthony, and Gage were a triad, Gage was frequently considered the most radical of the three because her activism extended far beyond the right to vote. [1, 2, 3]
While other feminists of that time were focused almost entirely on the right to vote, Matilda fought against deep institutional structures, speaking out against:
—the sex trafficking of women,
—advocating for Native American rights, and
—analyzing how patriarchal religious institutions oppressed women. [1, 2, 3, 4]
Conservative-leaning feminists forced her out of the movement because of her deeply critical views of cherished institutions.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton was also forced out by feminists, at one point, for her critique of patriarchy in the Bible.
However, history has served Stanton well.
Her name has not been lost.
Because Susan B. Anthony’s mainstream faction eventually won the historical narrative, Gage was largely written out of the traditional history of the suffrage movement.
There is a term for that type of omission and erasure of women.
It is called
The Matilda Effect*
(named for Matilda Joslyn Gage)
It refers to the reporting of women’s heroic or creative actions being deliberately suppressed or their due credit given to men)
~~~~~~~~~~~~
SO…
WHAT DOES MATILDA JOSLYN GAGE HAVE TO DO WITH THE WIZARD OF OZ STORY?
Hang on to your hats!
A cyclone is coming!
Matilda Joslyn Gage
March 24, 1826 - March 28, 1898
Matilda Joslyn Gage wrote a major book, Woman, Church and State (1893), which is now considered an essential feminist treatise.
It was a blistering critique of patriarchy.
AND HERE IS WHERE HER VIEWS INTERSECTED IN THE MOST SURPRISING WAY WITH THE LAND OF OZ.
The story is one, in which a cyclone carries Dorothy Gale and her dog, Toto, from Kansas to the magical Land of Oz.
Breaking News!
(for most of us, at least)
The radical feminist, Matilda Joslyn Gage, was the mother-in-law of L. Frank Baum, the author of:
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. [1, 2]
Matilda’s youngest daughter Maud and L. Frank Baum were married in 1882.
A significant factor:
Frank Baum and his mother-in-law had a terrific relationship.
Family Ties
When L. Frank Baum and Maud Gage were married in 1882, they lived in central New York.
After Matilda's husband Henry died in 1884, she frequently lived with the couple. [1, 2]
Inspiration for Oz
Frank loved and respected his mother-in-law. He accepted her guidance and was deeply influenced by her feminist views, especially as he was writing The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, which was published in 1900.
Also significantly, Frank did not just absorb the political ideas Matilda had offered in her book, Woman, Church and State.
He actively sought her out as his primary source of creative inspiration, imagination and artistic energy.
The radical feminist Matilda was truly Frank’s mentor.
Matilda, in turn, was so impressed with her son-in-law’s storytelling abilities that she urged him to write down the bedtime stories she heard him spinning for his children.
She even suggested he include a cyclone in, at least, one of them.
And that is how:
Matilda Joslyn Gage—a radical suffragist, abolitionist, and freethinker—shaped Baum's worldview and heavily influenced the female-dominated society and complex characters in Oz. [1, 2]
FUN FACT: The meaning of “radical” is simply “root”. Matilda moved directly to the root of issues, finding that root in patriarchy and its institutions.
So, truth be told, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a feminist tale!
It is widely considered by literary historians to be the first truly feminist American children's book.
Why?
Its focus is on a self-reliant young girl.
The Land of Oz, in the original story and in 13 official sequels, ???, features a world governed almost entirely by powerful women, a setting that was revolutionary for 1900. [1]
~~~~~~~~~~~~
How Matilda’s Ideas Shaped Specific Characters in Oz
The Witches of Oz
Matilda Joslyn Gage completely reimagined the concept of a "witch". [1, 2]
In her foundational 1893 feminist treatise, Woman, Church and State, Matilda wrote about how society historically persecuted and demonized independent women as "witches." [1, 2]
She argued that historical "witches" were actually society's "wise women," its most educated women.
They were the community’s scientists, herbalists, doctors, and independent thinkers who were demonized by a male-dominated church terrified of their independence. [1, 2]
The "Wicked Witch" label was propaganda.
She argued that patriarchal and religious institutions demonized these women simply because they feared female intellect and autonomy. [1, 2]
The Re-definition of "Witchcraft" (Chapter 5):
Gage dedicated an entire massive chapter in her book to the history of the European and American witch trials, which took place mainly between 1300 and 1750, with a major peak from 1580 to 1630.
The American witch trials occurred mostly in colonial New England during the 17th century, famously peaking with the Salem witch trials in 1692–1693.
The most intense and well-known outbreak was the Salem witch trials in colonial Massachusetts from February 1692 to May 1693. [1]
The Halocaust of Women:
Matilda calculated that millions of women were killed.
Gage asserted that those burned were not evil, but were the intelligentsia of the female sex—healers, mid-wives, scientists, and freethinkers whose knowledge threatened the monopoly of the male priesthood.[1, 2, 3, 4]
Her definition of a witch as a wise, knowledgeable woman directly inspired Baum's depiction of both benevolent and wicked witches. [1, 2]
The Duality of Witches:
Before Frank Baum, Western folklore almost exclusively portrayed witches as ugly, evil crones.
Influenced by Matilda Joslyn Gage's view of "wise women," Baum fractured this archetype by introducing the Good Witches.
They wore the same pointed hats and possessed the same formidable magic as their wicked counterparts, showing that female power itself wasn't inherently evil. [1, 2]
The Witches (Glinda & The Wicked Witch):
What L. Frank Baum did was to subvert centuries of fairy-tale tropes by adopting Gage’s view, creating powerful women who wielded magic.
In L. Frank Baum's original 1900 book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, there are four main witches.
They correspond to the four cardinal directions of the compass:[1, 2, 3, 4]
The Good Witch of the North: the kind, elderly witch who greets Dorothy in Munchkin Country and gives her the protective kiss on the forehead.
The Good Witch of the South (Glinda): the beautiful and highly powerful witch who shows Dorothy how to use the silver shoes to get home. (Dorothy’s shoes are silver, not red, in the book.)
The Wicked Witch of the East: the tyrant who enslaved the Munchkins until Dorothy’s house accidentally lands on her and kills her.
The Wicked Witch of the West: the main villain who commands the winged monkeys, and melts when Dorothy throws water on her. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
How the 1939 Movie Changes The Four Witches
In the classic 1939 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film adaptation, the story simplifies the four into three witches.
The filmmakers combined the two good witches into one singular character.
Glinda, is referred to as the Good Witch of the North instead of the South. [1, 2, 3]
Glinda
Glinda represents the idealized version of Gage's "wise woman" archetype—ruling with wisdom and compassion.
Frank Baum modeled the character of Glinda the Good Witch in large part on Matilda Joslyn Gage. [1, 2]
Meanwhile, the Wicked Witch of the West can be read as a manifestation of how a patriarchal society vilifies and fears strong, independent women who refuse to conform.
Uncle Henry
The character of Uncle Henry in Oz is named after Matilda's husband, Henry Gage. [1]
Before Oz, children's stories typically featured passive heroines who needed to be rescued.
Dorothy's Autonomy
Unlike classic fairytales where princesses wait around to be rescued by a prince,
Dorothy , instead, is a fiercely independent, self-reliant girl who embarks on a hero's journey, makes her own alliances, slays tyrants, and rescues her friends.
She is an active protagonist who leads a fellowship of men and ultimately saves herself using her own hidden potential. [1]
Dorothy's agency is a direct reflection of Gage's progressive ideals regarding the liberation of girls and women.
The Wizard
In Baum’s book, the Wizard is exposed as a charlatan who forces people to wear green-tinted spectacles, coercing them into seeing a reality that does not actually exist.
Matriarchal Power over Male Fraud
In Baum's universe, the traditional patriarchal figure of authority, the Great and Powerful Wizard, is revealed to be a total fraud, a "humbug" who hides behind a curtain because he has no real power.
The lasting authority in Oz belongs to women like Glinda (and Princess Ozma, who is a character in the sequels. [1, 2]
The Wonderful Land of Oz
In Baum’s book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the magical land, is not a hallucination or a dream (which was an invention of the 1939 MGM movie), but a very real, tangible place separated from Kansas by a natural, spiritual barrier—the Deadly Desert.
How the 1939 MGM Movie Stripped Out the Feminist Framework
L. Frank Baum’s 1900 novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, was a radical, counter-cultural fairy tale heavily inspired by Gage's matriarchal ideals.
However, when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) adapted the book into the iconic 1939 film, Hollywood systematically stripped away the book's progressive, feminist framework to align the story with conservative, mid-century American domestic norms. [1, 2]
The Ultimate Narrative Betrayal:
"It Was All a Dream"
In the original book, Oz is a very real place. Dorothy is a classic hero who travels to a foreign land, overthrows tyrants, makes her own treaties, and claims her own power.
By turning the entire journey into a delirious fever dream brought on by a bump on the head, the 1939 movie completely invalidated Dorothy's accomplishments.
“Wicked”
the play, the film, the Story
and
the onnection to the Views of Matilda Joslyn Gage:
???’s new book, Wicked, upon which the play and film are loosely based, brings back some of Matilda Joslyn Gage’s original views as expressed in her book, ???
~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Spiritual Path:
Theosophy
Rather than a Christian framework of heaven, hell, and sin, Oz is built entirely on Theosophical metaphysics. [1, 2]
The Path to Enlightenment (The Yellow Brick Road):
In Theosophy, the human soul must embark on a "Perilous Journey" or pilgrimage through the material world to attain higher spiritual evolution.
The Yellow Brick Road represents this spiritual path. [1, 2, 3]
The Triad of the Soul (Scarecrow, Tin Man, Lion):
Theosophy teaches that the human ego must harmonize different spiritual attributes to achieve wholeness or Totum
The Scarecrow represents the Manas (Intellect/Mind).
The Tin Woodman represents the Buddhi (Heart/Soul/Compassion).
The Cowardly Lion represents the Kama (Willpower/Courage to overcome base desires).
Dorothy cannot ascend or find her way "home" until she integrates all three facets of her spiritual self. [1, 2]
Totem: reality is represented by Dorothy’s dog, Toto who does not transform into a mythical creature or possess magical powers. He remains exactly what he is—a small, physical dog. As a totem, he represents anchoring continuity.
The Theosophical Connection
To replace the traditional religious structures they rejected, both Gage and Baum turned to Theosophy, an esoteric spiritual movement founded in 1875 by Madame Helena Blavatsky.
Theosophy blended Eastern religions (like Hinduism and Buddhism) with Western mysticism, science, and philosophy.
The Rejection of a Male God: Theosophy taught that the divine was a genderless, universal spiritual principle, rather than an angry, patriarchal old man in the sky.
This perfectly aligned with Gage’s feminist critique of Christianity.
This view about the male God in Christianity is also reiterated by radical feminist philosopher and theologian, Mary Daly ,in her b1973 book, Beyond God as Father: Toward a Philosophy of Women’s Liberation.
While Gage operated during first-wave feminism and Daly during the second wave, Daly explicitly recognized Gage as a pioneering foremother of radical feminist theology.
The Core Premise: The Male God as a Tool of Oppression
Both authors argued that a male deity is not a neutral religious concept, but rather the cornerstone of patriarchal control. [1, 2]
Gage’s View (1893): Gage argued that the Christian Church established its power by erasing ancient matriarchal societies and replacing revered feminine principles with a strictly male authority.
She claimed the concept of a male God institutionalized the belief that women were inherently inferior and the source of original sin. [1, 2, 3, 4]
Daly’s View (1973): Daly famously synthesized this dynamic into a single, punchy phrase: "If God is male, then the male is God." Daly built on Gage's premise by demonstrating how a heavenly patriarch naturally legitimizes a society dominated by earthly patriarchs. [1, 2, 3]
I would be remiss if I did not mention two other significant sides of Matilda Joslyn Gage,
as well as her erasure from history and herstory.
Gloria Steinem admired Matilda, not only for her deeply intelligent and radical views on feminism, but also because of her close Native American association, and for the part she played in the Underground Railroad.
The Haudenosaunee Model:
Living in Cicero and Fayetteville, New York, Gage was neighbors with the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy.
While the laws of coverture * legally made white American women the property of their husbands, Gage observed that Haudenosaunee women enjoyed full legal, political, and social equality.
They controlled their own property, held veto power over going to war, and held the sole authority to select—and depose—clan chiefs. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
Seeing a World Without Patriarchy
For Gage, the Haudenosaunee provided living proof that a matriarchal, egalitarian society was not a utopian myth, but a historically successful reality.
This concept heavily inspired the female-led societies that Baum created in the land of Oz, especially in the sequels [1, 2, 3]
Adoption into the Wolf Clan
In 1893, Gage’s deep respect for and defense of Indigenous treaty rights led to her being honorably adopted into the Wolf Clan of the Mohawk Nation. She was given the name Ka-ron-ien-ha-wi, meaning "Sky Carrier" or "She who holds the sky". [1, 2, 3]
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Matilda Joslyn Gage and the Underground Railroad
Matilda Joslyn Gage’s dedication to absolute human liberty was forged long before her work in the suffrage movement.
She grew up in a household completely dedicated to abolitionism, a passion she later brought to her own married life. [1, 2]
The Joslyn Family Station
The Joslyn family home in Cicero, NY was a known, active station on the Underground Railroad, welcoming and shielding freedom seekers who were heading north toward Canada.
Growing up, Gage watched her father treat liberty as an absolute moral imperative, a foundation that taught her to "think for herself". [1, 2, 3, 4]
~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Matilda Joslyn Gage Home and Foundation
Today, the Matilda Joslyn Gage Home and Foundation in Fayetteville is a National Park.
It features an intact Underground Railroad room to educate the public on her radical intersectional legacy. [1, 2]
The Matilda Joslyn Gage Home in Fayetteville, New York,
It does not operate like a traditional, passive museum. Instead, it functions actively as the Matilda Joslyn Gage Center for Social Justice Dialogue, explicitly structured to connect Gage's historical battles with modern social movements. [1, 2]
The foundation intentionally avoids velvet ropes and "do not touch" barriers. Visitors are encouraged to sit on the furniture, play the parlor piano, and directly engage with the environment. [1]
The Matilda Joslyn Gage Center
210 East Genesee Street
Fayetteville, NY 13066
(315) 637-9511)Website:
The Matilda Joslyn Gage Center Video, July 8, 2024
“A National Park”
____________________
_____________
The "Matilda Effect"
and
Gage's Historical Erasure
Matilda Joslyn Gage argued in her lifetime that women’s intellectual, scientific, and political achievements were being systematically buried by men. A century later, history proved her entirely right by erasing her, too. [1, 2, 3]
The Coining of the Term:
In 1993, Dr. Margaret W. Rossiter, a prominent historian of science, noticed a persistent bias where female scientists' discoveries were routinely credited to their male colleagues.
To describe this systemic suppression, Rossiter coined the term "The Matilda Effect", naming it directly in honor of Matilda Joslyn Gage.
Gage’s Prediction
Rossiter chose Gage because, in 1883, Gage had published a groundbreaking essay entitled "Woman as an Inventor".
In it, Gage documented how women invented or heavily contributed to civilization-shifting technologies (like the cotton gin) but were denied patents, stripped of credit, and written out of textbooks. [1, 2]
Gage Becomes a Victim of Her Own Effect
Following her 1890 split with Susan B. Anthony, both Anthony and Stanton spent decades consolidating their control over the narrative of the women's movement.
When they published the massive volumes of The History of Woman Suffrage, Gage’s radical anti-church stances and contributions were downplayed or omitted.
Anthony's more socially palatable, conservative strategy became the "official" history, and Gage was effectively forgotten for nearly a century. [1, 2]
It wasn't until her induction into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1998, combined with the popularization of Rossiter's "Matilda Effect," that historians began recovering Gage's vital legacy. [1]
Gloria Steinem made it a mission to restore Matilda Joslyn Gage to her rightful place in history and herstory, especially by restoring her place among the women of the feminist movement who fought for women’s rights and the dismantling of the laws of coverture.
Coverture: To understand the restrictions that were placed on women by the laws of. coverture, you may refer to my blogpost: ???
Through years of advocacy by feminists, especially by Elizabeth Cady Stanton at Seneca Falls in 1848, those laws were finally repealed in ??
A personal digression that I cannot resist sharing:
The Oz story has been a favorite of my family and also of family friends.
When our middle son Michael was in Weston High School in CT, in 1986 the drama club, “Company”, of which he was a member, put on a rendition of the play“The Wiz.”
This show had been a Broadway take-off of the original The Wonderful Wizard of Oz story.
Michael was cast as the Cowardly Lion.
Two of Michael’s very close friends—then and now—were also cast in significant roles: his classmate Kyle as the Scarecrow, and his schoolmate, Karen, who was a year ahead of them, as Glinda.
Today Kyle (the Scarecrow) is an Emmy-award winning comedy writer, actor, and stand-up comedian.
Karen (Glinda) lends her beautiful voice to weddings and other events.
Michael (the Cowardly Lion) has done solo vocal performances at a Manhattan cabaret spot, and solo benefit performances to raise money for NAMI-NYC and NAMI-MA, which are chapters of the National Association for Mental Illness.
There is more:
Ten years after the three friends performed in The Wiz in Weston High School’s drama club, Company, Michael’s younger brother, David. who is 14 years his junior, was in a summer drama camp in Westport, CT in 1996.
The camp directors put on a rendition of The Wizard of Oz with David cast as the Scarecrow!
Coincidentally, the camp directors chose Weston High School as the performance space for the campers.
So, David “walked the boards” as the Scarescrow on the same stage where his older brother Michael, 10 years earlier, had performed as the Lion.
One annot make up these coincidence stories!
When David checked the green room off-stage, to his delight, he found on its walls the autographs of his brother and Michael’s friends from their days in the Weston High School drama club.
So, we love the Wizard of Oz Story in a very special way.
As for me, I am thrilled to learn that The Wizard of Oz story with its sequels is, in truth, a feminist tale.
I am especially grateful to learn that it was informed by Matilda Joslyn Gage from the bedtime stories spun out by her son-in-law L. Frank Baum, the husband of Matilda and Henry’s daughter Maud, for their children, Matilda’s own grandchildren.
RESOURCES
—Ms. Magazine, 3/29/2021, Jamie Jordan, “The Radical Feminist Behind the Curtain.”
COMMENTS
— Thank you, Anne. This was so interesting. You did a great job explaining the movements of the moon. Thank you so much for the special place and honor you gave to my sister Lucy. She had trouble walking and, even so, she walked to the golf course every day, taking her lunch with her, and she sat by those mounds. I didn’t know that the Native grounds had received UNESCO approval and are now a UNESCO World Site. That’s really wonderful! —Eleanor Rae
—I really liked the mounds post! 😊 Especially: The people who built the Hopewell Earthworks were egalitarian. They lived in small, peaceful, spread-out farming hamlets. They had no centralized government, no kings, and no standing armies. 🥰🥰🥰 —MA
—Thank you for a wonderful article. It is so rich in so many disciplines: religion, sociology, math, science, history and much more. Will the work of the heroines and UNESCO have to be repeated for each site? —RE
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Gloria Steinem used these words to highlight how Gage’s ideas were too radical even for her compatriots, 19th-century suffragists like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
Gage’s Activism & The Haudenosaunee Influence
Gage was one of the "triumvirate" of early American feminism alongside Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
However, Gage was frequently considered the most radical because her activism extended far beyond the right to vote. [1, 2, 3]
The ideological split between the early suffragists and the spiritual movement of Theosophy are deeply connected. Both Matilda Joslyn Gage and L. Frank Baum looked outside mainstream politics and traditional religion to find answers, leading them to shared radical beliefs.
1. The Split with Susan B. Anthony: Radicalism vs. Conservatism
By the late 1880s, a major ideological rift fractured the American suffrage movement. Matilda Joslyn Gage and Elizabeth Cady Stanton found themselves increasingly at odds with Susan B. Anthony.
Merging of Suffrage Associations: In 1890, Anthony engineered a merger between their radical group and a more conservative rival organization to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA).
The Alliance with Religious Conservatives: To gain mainstream political traction and secure the vote, Anthony began courting orthodox Christian groups, most notably the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU).
Gage’s Fierce Opposition: Gage was horrified by this alliance. She believed that the institutional Christian church was the foundational source of women's oppression and subjugation.
She warned that partnering with religious conservatives would lead to a "theocracy" that would strip away civil liberties and religious freedoms.
Forming the Liberal Thinkers: Outraged by Anthony's compromise, Gage broke away from NAWSA entirely.
In 1890, she founded the Woman’s National Liberal Union (WNLU), a radical organization dedicated to fighting the encroachment of church into state affairs and exposing religious bias against women.
The Theosophical Connection
To replace the traditional religious structures they rejected, both Gage and Baum turned to Theosophy, an esoteric spiritual movement founded in 1875 by Madame Helena Blavatsky.
Theosophy blended Eastern religions (like Hinduism and Buddhism) with Western mysticism, science, and philosophy.
Official Membership: Gage joined the Theosophical Society in 1885.
Intrigued by her mother-in-law’s intellectual pursuits, Baum and Maud officially joined the Ramayana Theosophical Society in Chicago in 1892. Baum even edited a Theosophical column in his Aberdeen, South Dakota newspaper.
The Rejection of a Male God: Theosophy taught that the divine was a genderless, universal spiritual principle, rather than an angry, patriarchal old man in the sky.
This perfectly aligned with Gage’s feminist critique of Christianity.
this view is also found in Mary Daly’s Beyond God as Father.
The "Veil" and Magical Realms: Theosophy asserted that there are unseen, higher spiritual planes of existence existing alongside our own.
The Core Arguments of Woman, Church and State (1893)
Matilda Joslyn Gage’s masterpiece was a blistering, historically dense critique of patriarchy. It was so radical that it was later banned under the Comstock Laws for obscenity. [1, 2, 3]
The Theft of the Matriarchate (Chapter 1): Gage begins by examining ancient, pre-Christian history, arguing that human society originally operated under a Matriarchate—a system where women held social, religious, and political authority.
She states that patriarchal systems actively overthrew this balanced world to strip women of their autonomy. [1, 2, 3]
The Church as the Primary Oppressor (Chapters 2–4): Gage traces how Christian theology and Canon Law codified the idea that women were inherently sinful, unclean, and subordinate to men.
She argues that the concept of "original sin" via Eve was manufactured specifically to justify marital subjugation, unequal work, and the legal erasure of wives. [1, 2, 3]
Mary Daly addresses the same issue in her book” The Church and the Second Sex.”
Simone de Beauvoir does so also in her book “The Second Sex.”
Theosophical Concepts Rendered in the Oz Books
L. Frank Baum’s fantasy series serves as a narrative playground for the esoteric concepts he studied with Gage.
The Silver Shoes as the "Silver Cord": In the Theosophical tradition, the "silver cord" is the metaphysical tether that links a person's astral body to their physical body during spiritual travel.
In the book, Dorothy’s Silver Shoes (changed to ruby by Hollywood) carry her safely across the Deadly Desert, acting as her direct connection to grounding spiritual power.
The Magical Law of Cause and Effect (Karma): There is no divine intervention or traditional "saviors" in Oz. When Dorothy destroys the Wicked Witches, it is not through holy power, but through elemental reactions (water, crushing houses)—symbolizing the natural, cosmic re-balancing of karma. The characters find that the magic they sought from the Wizard was already inside themselves all along, reflecting the Theosophical truth that divinity dwells within the individual.[1]
___________________
1._____________
2. 1. The Suffragist Army in the Oz Sequels
In his second book, The Marvelous Land of Oz (1904), L. Frank Baum introduced a direct, highly visible satire of the suffragist movement. He created General Jinjur and her "Army of Revolt"—an all-woman military force that marches on the Emerald City to overthrow the Scarecrow King. [1, 2]
The Knitting Needle Rebellion: Jinjur’s army doesn’t carry swords or guns; their primary weapons are long, glittering knitting needles hidden in their hair. They successfully stage a bloodless coup of the capital, largely because the men of Oz are too terrified of women to fight back. [1, 2, 3]
The Utopian Satire: Once Jinjur declares herself queen, she completely flips traditional gender roles. The women take over the leadership and governing duties, while the men of the Emerald City are forced to wear aprons and perform domestic labor, like cooking and cleaning. [1, 2]
A Complex Political Commentary: Literary scholars debate whether Jinjur's army was meant as a critique or a celebration of Gage's ideology. On one hand, Baum uses standard anti-suffragist tropes of the era: Jinjur's soldiers are temporarily routed by a box of field mice, and they are easily distracted by the shiny emeralds of the city. Yet, by the end of the book, the patriarchal rule of the Scarecrow is permanently abolished. True balance is only restored when Princess Ozma, a young woman, is placed on the throne to establish a peaceful, matriarchal sovereign state.[1, 2, 3]
The Yellow Brick Road represents this spiritual path.
Princess Ozma: Introduced in the sequels, the rightful ruler of Oz is a young girl named Ozma. Notably, she spent her early years transformed into a boy named Tip before her true identity was restored. This theme of gender fluidity and female sovereign rule heavily mirrors Gage's radical views on breaking down rigid gender binaries and embracing female leadership. [1, 2, 3, 4]
Reincarnation and Karma: Theosophists believed that human souls reincarnate through many lifetimes, shifting between different genders, races, and nationalities to gain cosmic wisdom. This belief system directly fueled the themes of gender fluidity (such as Princess Ozma starting her life as the boy Tip) and the lack of traditional rigid morality in the Oz series.
The Yellow Brick Road: The Path to Enlightenment
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, for her part, had examined and critiqued the Bible for its many patriarchal entries.
FACT: Elizabeth Cady Stanton was also pushed to the sidelines of the late 19th century feminist movement, largely because she address the anti-women segments of the Bible.
History has served Elizabeth better than Matilda.
When Ms. Magazine covered the story of Matilda Joslyn Gage. Jamie Jordon entitled her piece:
The Radical Feminist Behind the Curtain
Article published in Ms. Magazine 3/29/2021
by JAMIE JORDAN
To be sure, those ubiquitous and insensitive jokes and tales about the negative relationship between mothers-in-law and their sons-in-laws just wasn’t the way it was for this pair.
As stated, it was Gage who originally convinced Baum to write down the bedtime stories he told his children.
She even suggested the concept of using a cyclone to transport the protagonist. [1, 2]
Historians note this reflects Gage’s fierce critiques of the institutional Church and State, which she argued blinded people with dogma to keep them from questioning authority or seeing the truth of their own oppression.From Empowered Heroine to Helpless Child
Baum's Dorothy is a fiercely independent girl who takes charge. When she accidentally melts the Wicked Witch, it is a triumph of cosmic karma.
In the book, Dorothy never actively cries about wanting to leave Kansas; she simply has practical responsibilities to return to. The movie radically rewrites her into a vulnerable, weeping child who spends the majority of the runtime calling out for Aunt Em. [1]
The Infantalization of Glinda
In the novel and W.W. Denslow's original illustrations, the good witches are depicted as mature, wise, and grounded women—reflecting Gage's archetype of the educated woman.
In fact, the Good Witch of the North wore a pointy hat and clothes similar to her wicked counterparts, showing a complex duality of female power.
The movie erased the Witch of the North entirely, creating a composite character in Glinda the Good Witch. Hollywood transformed her into a hyper-feminine, glittery, bubblegum-pink fairy who arrives in a literal bubble, effectively infantalizing the image of a powerful woman into an unthreatening Hollywood starlet. [1]
My family love the plays, The Wizard of Oz and The Wiz.
A personal digression that I cannot resist sharing:
The Oz story has been a favorite of my family and some special friends.
When my middle son Michael was in Weston High School in CT, in 1986 the drama club, “Company”, of which he was a member put on the play“The Wiz,” which was a Broadway take-off of the original Oz story.
Michael was cast as the Lion.
Two of his very close friends—then and now—were cast in significant roles: his classmate Kyle as the Scarecrow, and his schoolmate, who was a year ahead of them, as Glinda.
There is more: Michael’s younger, David was in a summer drama camp in Westport, CT, 10 years later in 1996. The camp leaders put on The Wizard of Oz with David cast as the Scarecrow!
Fun Fact: Coincidentally they performed on the same Weston High school stage as his older brother Michael performed as the Lion.
David checked the green room and found the signatures of his brother and all his friends.
So, we love the Wizard of Oz Story in a very special way.
Fun Fact: The parents of these three wonderful children of ours are have been close friends as well for over 40 years.
Not only are these three still he closest of friends, but they still carry the mantra of their roles. For example, when The Wiz was playing on Broadway a few years ago, the three of them went to see it together . took a photo outside the theater with The Wiz sign in the background, and “Glinda” has the photo magnetized to her refrigerator.
The Fayetteville Safe House: In 1845, Matilda married Henry Hill Gage, whose family was also composed of dedicated abolitionists. When the couple moved to their permanent home at 210 E. Genesee Street in Fayetteville, New York in 1854, they immediately carried on the family legacy. They were approached by the Reverend Jermain Wesley Loguen, a legendary escaped slave who became the superintendent of the Underground Railroad in Syracuse. The Gages enthusiastically offered their Fayetteville home as an official station. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
Gage was born in Cicero, New York, to Dr. Hezekiah Joslyn, a fiercely progressive physician and abolitionist.
Defying the Fugitive Slave Law: Following the passage of the brutal Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, harboring escaped slaves became a federal crime punishable by severe fines and imprisonment. Despite constant surveillance by authorities, Gage openly defied the law. She was famously the only person in Fayetteville to officially sign her name to a statement declaring that she would give food, shelter, and comfort to any person seeking their liberty.
Matilda effect
The Matilda effect is a bias against acknowledging the achievements of women scientists and inventors, whose work is consequently attributed to their male colleagues. This phenomenon was first described by suffragist and abolitionist Matilda Joslyn Gage (1826–1898) in her essay, "Woman as Inventor" (first published as a tract in 1870 and later published in the North American Review, retitled "Woman as an Inventor", in 1883).[1] The term Matilda effect was coined in 1993 by science historian Margaret W. Rossiter.[2][3]
Rossiter provides several examples of this effect. Trotula (Trota of Salerno), a 12th-century Italian woman physician, wrote books which, after her death, were attributed to male authors. Nineteenth- and twentieth-century cases illustrating the Matilda effect include those of Nettie Stevens,[4] Lise Meitner, Marietta Blau, Rosalind Franklin, and Jocelyn Bell Burnell.
The Matilda effect was compared to the Matthew effect, whereby an eminent scientist often gets more credit than a comparatively unknown researcher, even if their work is shared or similar.[5][6]
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The Experiential Rooms
The Oz Parlor: This room is meticulously restored to match a historic photograph taken by L. Frank Baum himself. It honors the marriage of Baum and Maud Gage, which took place in this exact room in 1882. [1, 2]
The Underground Railroad Room: Located on the upper level, this preserved space commemorates the home's history as an active safe house. Visitors can stand in the room where Gage and her family hid freedom seekers in direct defiance of federal law. [1, 2]
The Women's Rights Room & Gage's Desk: Visitors can sit at Matilda's actual writing desk. Instead of just looking at it, the museum requires that the desk be used; visitors are invited to sit down and write a personal letter or note to Matilda about contemporary issues. [1]
Interactive Dialogue Walls: The center is famous for its interactive walls. Visitors are actively invited to write their own thoughts, critiques, and ideas directly on the walls, making the community an evolving part of the exhibit itself. [1]
Contemporary Activism & Community Work
The center continues Gage's intersectional legacy through regular community programming: [1]
The "Engage With Gage" Reading Series: A recurring community forum dedicated to reading and dissecting the chapters of her banned book, Woman, Church and State, alongside modern reproductive and civil rights text.
Local Indigenous Partnerships: Honoring Gage's adoption into the Mohawk Nation Wolf Clan, the center collaborates with groups like the American Indian Law Alliance to feature Haudenosaunee art, literature, and educational campaigns.
Rotational Social Justice Exhibits: The museum commissions special social justice art installations. For instance, a featured exhibit titled "Women's Work" by artist Rachel Ivy Clarke utilized data-driven quilts to visually track the systemic political and historic suppression of female labor. [1]
The likelihood of most of us having heard of Matilda Joslyn Gage is virtually nil, (perhaps, until perhaps fairly recently)
Matilda Joslyn Gage’s radical activism and the specific ways her worldview shaped the magical land of Oz reveal the deep intellectual partnership between the suffragist and her son-in-law, L. Frank Baum.
And, Matilda Joslyn Gage was as radical as you could get in a feminist of the 19th century.
In the most surprising way, Matilda had a very direct connection to the writing of the story of The Wizard of Oz.
"There's No Place Like Home" vs. "The Power is Within You"
The book's ultimate lesson perfectly mirrors Gage's spiritual and feminist ethos: you do not need a patriarch, a wizard, or a system of authority to save you; the power has been inside you the entire time.
Dorothy achieves her goals through her own choices and the support of her found family. [1]
The movie utterly subverted this by hammering home the mantra, "There's no place like home."
The film concludes that a young girl’s ultimate goal should not be adventure, sovereignty, or self-actualization, but rather a quiet return to the safety, domesticity, and patriarchal confines of a gray Kansas farm.
Timeline
Matilda died in 1898, two years before Baum published The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in 1900. [1]
If you want L. Frank Baum’s actual intent for his story, read his book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, which was published in the year 1900, 126 years ago.
Of course, you can still enjoy the story of the Wizard of Oz in the Hollywood version, as a standalone tale, one that you have loved for years.
The "Engage With Gage" Reading Series: A recurring community forum dedicated to reading and dissecting the chapters of her banned book, Woman, Church and State, alongside modern reproductive and civil rights text.
Matilda moved directly to the root of the issues and problems of patriarchy and its institutions.
And these problems affect all of us to this day. They affect women and men, boys and girls.
How Gage Inspired the Oz Story
Frank Baum was incredibly close to Gage; (she lived with his family for months out of the year) who supported his writing. She even suggested he put a cyclone into his children's stories.
Her ideas were directly manifested in the Land of Oz: [1, 2]
She defined a witch instead as a wise, knowledgeable woman.
