What do the flat-bottomed paper bag, the game Monopoly,
and the treatment for leprosy all have in common?
These are all women's ideas that men stole.
But, these are only a few examples. It happens so
much that there's even a name for it: The Matilda Effect.
So, let's talk about how we steal women's ideas in Company Forensics.
First I guess we have to talk about, why it happens? Why do men steal women's ideas?
It could be jealousy. But, there's more to it than that.
Throughout history, many women have worked under men’s authority. Unfortunately,
such dynamics have led to men taking credit for women's work.
It's as easy as a man taking a woman's research, for example, and signing it as his. That simple.
Women also have historically been banned from working in specific fields. So for centuries,
they were the exception.
That’s if they had a chance. Even today, in some cases, their presence in science and technology
can be more an exception than the norm.
Men viewed them as inferior, or incapable of being up to par.
So, not only did they have to fight to get a job, women were looked down upon,
and their accomplishments shmeared with criticism or undervaluing.
This problem led Matilda Joslyn Gage to research how men
got credit for women's ideas, be it due to authority, sexism, jealousy, or a combination of all of these factors.
By the way, that was back in 1870. That long! And, it goes back even further.
Look at Theano, the first woman mathematician. She was brilliant,
but Pythagoras took credit for most of her work.
As research on women’s accomplishments has intensified, we've learned more
about how some of these great minds worked. Most importantly,
we learn of what they did. Some of the examples are fascinating.
And, if you think that there can't be such blatant thievery,
well, this video is going to show you otherwise.
It all starts with a woman dying in a science lab, all the way back to New Year's Eve, 1916.
Alice Ball was 24 years old when she died of complications from inhaling chlorine gas.
This happened at the lab she worked in, as a student, at the College of Hawaii.
Her death is a mystery. Some reports state that she inhaled the gas by accident when teaching
others how to use a gas mask. But, others show the cause of death to be "tuberculosis."
All these questions add to the mysticism of Alice Ball and why she's so important to our
story. This woman helped thousands and made history while doing so.
Alice Ball is the first African American and the first woman
to get a Master's Degree from the College of Hawaii. She was also the first woman
and African American to have an instructor position in chemistry. Back in 1915!
She got all these accolades because,
at just 23 years old, Alice Ball had accomplished something marvelous.
There's a horrible disease called leprosy that, for centuries, had no cure. But, research in
China and India showed that the oil from the Chaulmoogra tree could work as a treatment.
But there was a catch. The oil was pungent so drinking it was almost impossible.
And it was also water-insoluble, so it caused burning sensations and adverse
reactions when injected.
Still, Alice Ball was so brilliant that the Hawaii Public Health Officer asked her directly:
"hey, Alice, I need you to solve this for me."
She managed to take the oil's fatty acids and isolate compounds to create an effective therapy.
Moreover, it was injectable and caused very few side effects. And she did all this by age 23!
Her treatment was so effective that it would be used for more than thirty years. But, someone
would steal her thunder.
One year after she died, the president of the College of Hawaii, Arthur Dean,
published her research under his name. Then, he called it the "Dean Method ."What a douchebag!
Do you remember that Public Health Officer who asked Alice to develop
the solution? He found out about the "Dean Method" in 1922.
He was all: aw, hell no. Well, I don't know if he said that, but he was angry. So,
he published an article describing Alice Ball's original findings and called it the Ball Method.
By 1922, she already had some credit, but barely. In fact,
her work almost disappears if it wasn't for Dr. Kahtryn Waddell Takara.
In 1977, she learned of Alice Ball and made an effort to preserve her biography.
Otherwise, we wouldn't know about her.
This situation sucks, and our next case sucks even more. Can you imagine going to a patent
office and discovering that someone has already patented your same idea?
That's what happened to Margaret Knight back in 1867. And,
let me tell you, Margaret Knight took no bullshit.
So, when she found out who it was, she went all out to prove he was a thief.
It all started when Margaret began working in a paper bag factory. There,
she noticed that bags couldn't stand upright. Of course, that's something we
take for granted today, but back then, bags were flimsy.
So, she began working on a machine to create flat-bottomed bags.
Now, it's important to note that other machines already existed that did something similar.
Knight wanted to create a device that did everything at once.
But, she needed an iron model to patent her invention, and that's where Charles Anan comes in.
While Knight was visiting a factory to create the model, Anan saw it and shamelessly stole the idea.
He rushed to create his own device and patent it before Knight. It's a mystery how, but he pulled
it off. So, when Knight tried to inscribe her idea, she realized someone else had copied her.
But, as I said in the beginning, Margaret Knight was a badass. So,
Knight countered with a patent interference lawsuit.
And, can you guess what Charles Anan did?
His defense was that a woman couldn't have the intelligence to invent this machine.
That's right! That's what he said!
Knight had none and spent around $32,000 in today's money in legal fees to prove
that she was the inventor.
And, in the end, she was victorious, not only on the legal front.
The patent ended up giving her a comfortable life, and she carried on working as an inventor.
That's great; it really is. Knight had the means to pay for lawyers and finance the lawsuit
and that’s not always the case.
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Ok, the last story is Monopoly
You see, I love Monopoly. I play Monopoly since I was a kid
We used it in a bunch of our videos
And, when I read the story about how the game was born, Monopoly became even more fascinating.
In the 1940 US Census,
Elizabeth Magie Phillips listed her job as a game inventor and her income as "Zero ." But,
she had created what would become the most popular board game in the world: Monopoly.
So, what happened?
In 1903, Elizabeth Magie Phillips invented The Landlord's Game. It was a protest against
property monopolies and millionaires like Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller.
The game is very similar to the Monopoly that we know today, but it had a different goal.
Magie Phillips wanted to show the evil side of wealth accumulation.
She patented the game in 1904, and here's the most interesting aspect.
There were two opposing modes: Monopoly and Prosperity. One was to accumulate wealth.
And the other one created products and interacted with other players.
In 1909, Magie approached Parker Brothers to publish the game.
The company rejected the idea out of complexity of the game
Fast forward to 1935. The Parker Brothers company began distributing
a game called Monopoly. The inventor was Charles Darrow, or that’s what he said.
Here's the problem, he didn't invent it.
Jobless since the Great Depression, Darrow spent most of his time
watching his friends play the Landlord's Game in Atlantic City.
Darrow took the game, varied some basic things, and claimed he invented it. He named it Monopoly.
When she found out, Magie Phillips was angry.
Magie took to the Washington Post to prove
that Darrow had stolen her idea. But, the bad thing is that this didn't change the outcome.
Darrow would be associated with a game he didn't invent for decades. And, worst of all,
he said he didn't plan to create the game. Instead, it was somewhat of divine inspiration.
With the royalties, he became a millionaire. That's right! A millionaire.
As for Magie, Parker Brothers paid her
$500 for the game.
However, since they released only a few copies, they refused to pay royalties.
She created other board games that failed to replicate the success of Monopoly,
which was her idea. She died in 1948, and for years, didn't get the recognition she deserved.
Today, the first versions of The Landlord's Game are among the most collectibles
games out there. People pay big bucks because, now, they know what happened. They know what this game means
So, vindication, I guess?
The next time you're playing Monopoly, remember that, just
like the game, greed is an essential part of its history, too.
We can say the same thing about the thousands of ideas that come from women. For decades,
women have struggled to get the credit they deserve.
We've done a tragically excellent job of hiding their accomplishments. Now,
it's our job to help them stand out. Like the woman that came up with the idea for today's video.