International Women’s Month: Women Achieve and Men Take Credit

In Meg Wolitzer’s 2003 novel, The Wife, readers are introduced to Joe and Joan Castleman—a refined couple living a life of affluence in a comfortable seaside mansion on the coast of Connecticut. Throughout the forty years of their marriage, Joan has devoted her life to supporting Joe’s prolific literary career, pouring her grace, refinement, and charm into the role of this accomplished man’s wife. A talented writer in her own right, Joan has spent her entire marriage supporting and nurturing Joe’s career, putting her aspirations on hold.  En route to Helsinki to buttress Joe as he receives a prestigious literary award, Joan decides she wants a divorce. 

As the narrative unfolds, we learn that Joan wrote all of Joe’s books. She had wanted Joe to succeed, but early in their relationship, it quickly became apparent that Joe had no actual talent. Thus, Joe and Joan (mostly Joe) then deluded themselves into believing that Joe was still the true author. As their seemingly perfect lives unravel, readers are left to contemplate both gender dynamics and personal identity. 

Joe is all too happy to take credit for Joan’s work, and he enjoys the adulation and adoration that comes with his misassigned fame when, in actuality, he is the one doing the cooking, cleaning, and shopping while capitalizing on his wife’s talent. The nature of the patriarchal world places value on men and their work and minimizes women and their accomplishments. This phenomenon is known as the Matilda Effect. 

The Matilda Effect was first described by suffragette Matilda Joslyn Gage, who posited that women in science become overlooked because many of their discoveries and breakthroughs are attributed to men. As it evolved over the last century, the Matilda Effect has come to describe the idea that male experience is representative of general experience, and female experience is women’s experience only. There are many examples of this throughout American history, most notably the following:

Heddy Lamarr: Actress Hedy Lamarr should actually be credited with the invention of wireless communication. During World War II, she worked closely with George Antheil to develop the idea of “frequency hopping,” which would have prevented the bugging of military radios. Unfortunately, the U.S. Navy ignored her patent —and later used her findings to develop new technologies.

Alice Ball: Her research sought to find a cure for leprosy by figuring out how to inject chaulmoogra oil directly into the bloodstream. In 1916, Arthur Dean took over her research, and Alice became a memory. 

Vera Rubin: An astrophysicist who confirmed the existence of dark matter, Rubin’s male advisor, Kent Ford, is credited with the discovery.

Esther Lederberg: A geneticist who worked alongside her husband, Esther discovered a virus that infiltrates E. coli. Her husband was awarded the 1958 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for her work.

Jocelyn Bell Burnell: Jocelyn discovered irregular radio pulses while working as a research assistant at Cambridge. Burnell received zero credit for her discovery—instead, her advisors Antony Hewish and Martin Ryle received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1974.

Elizabeth Magie: In 1903, she designed a game called “Landlord’s Game” to protest “big monopolists” like Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller. More than three decades later, a man named Charles Darrow claimed a version of it as his own and sold his game to Parker Brothers. Darrow made millions for the game we know today as Monopoly, while Magie’s creation earned her around $500.

Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton: In 1952, the singer/songwriter would record “Hound Dog,” a song Elvis Presley would eventually cover and make famous. A victim of both racism and sexism, she received no writing credit. 

Margaret Keane: Keane was the painter who created “the big-eyed waifs” -- pieces of art that became wildly popular in the 1960s. Her husband, Walter Keane, convinced her they would make more money if he put his name on the paintings. Years later, she claimed in court that he threatened to kill her if she ever went public with their secret.

It would be nice to believe that stories like these are a thing of the past, but unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the case. At the Rio Olympics, swimmer Katinka Hosszu won gold, and a commentator referred to her husband/coach as “the guy responsible for turning [her] into a whole different swimmer.” In 2022, it was revealed that Nicole Scherzinger put the band One Direction together, not Simon Cowell, as had been widely reported. Stealing ideas does not make you smart; it makes you a thief and calls into question your integrity. We must dispel the notion that women are to blame for having their intellectual property appropriated by men because they lack assertiveness or negotiation skills. We must acknowledge that women have great ideas and create a fair playing field regarding contribution and merit.

There is a wonderful 2017 film adaptation of The Wife, starring Glenn Close. I encourage you to check it out.