Wonder Women of History

By Laurie Robb Rowan Public Library

What do Wonder Woman, women’s suffrage, Margaret Sanger, and the lie detector all have in common? The answer is Wonder Woman’s creator, Dr. William Mouton Marston.
Marston, the topic of The Secret History of Wonder Woman, gets a thorough examination by Harvard historian Jill Lepore. In it, Lepore explores how feminism and women’s suffrage influenced Marston’s life from his early days, to his years of psychological studies that lead to the lie detector test, to his ideas that became Wonder Woman.  A well-written book with lots of photographs, quotes, and comic book frames, Lepore presents facts from hundreds of sources to give a complete picture of all of the elements that contributed to the iconic superhero.

     Throughout his life, Marston had a penchant for controversy. While trying to prove the lie detector test was legitimate, he was arrested for fraud. He couldn’t keep a job teaching psychology. With Wonder Woman he found success yet still sparked ire with many people who objected to her (lack of) clothing. Others found the often-used portrayal or plot line of evil villains placing Wonder Woman in bondage disturbing (Marston insisted the chains were symbols of suffrage – Wonder Woman always broke out of the chains); however, the most controversial aspect of Marston’s life was his nontraditional living arrangements, which were hidden from the public during his lifetime. Marston lived with his wife Elizabeth Holloway Marston, and Olive Byrne, who was the niece of birth control pioneer Margaret Sanger.

Lepore also describes the cultural elements behind the hero that Marston felt the world needed in the early 1940s. With women gaining the right to vote and outspoken women’s rights leaders taking the podium, Marston wanted a different kind of hero, one that would be “a standard among children and young people of strong, free, courageous womanhood”. He was able to create the first female superhero with her own comic book that embodied strength, intelligence, and independence, and who forced honesty from her enemies with her Lasso of Truth (inspired by Marston’s own lie detector test). An additional goal was to educate his readers about important women through a “Wonder Women of History” section. Some of the women featured were Sojourner Truth, Clara Barton, Dorothea Dix, and Joan of Arc.

So, in the spirit of Wonder Woman and Marston who declared that “The only hope for civilization is the greater freedom, development and equality of women,” learn about those who fought for women’s rights. Titles at the Rowan Public Library include:
•    Not for Ourselves Alone: the Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony by Geoffrey C. Ward
•    Notorious RBG : the Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg by Irin Carmon
•    The Firebrand and the First Lady : Portrait of a Friendship : Pauli Murray, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the Struggle for Social Justice by Patricia Bell-Scott
•    The Feminist Revolution : a Story of the Three Most Inspiring and Empowering Women in American History by Jules Archer, found in the juvenile book section