New Book For Young Readers Shaking History Up on “Matilda Effect”: Powerhouse Women Erased by Historians
Twenty-five women who were erased from history are getting their due in a new book for young readers.
Neglected heroines from the ancient past to the twentieth century are documented in The Matilda Effect: How 25 Women Were Erased From History (Kids Can Press, October 2026, Illus. Roxanne Rainville) by L.E. Carmichael.
For fans of Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls and Girls Think of Everything—as well as anyone who loves discovering unknown tales from the past—Carmichael’s unique collection gathers unforgettable stories about women who were denied their place in history.
“Throughout human history, women’s contributions have been overlooked, overshadowed or outright stolen, often by men in their field,” she said.
In science and engineering, this is known as the Matilda Effect, after the nineteenth-century American suffragette, writer and rights activist Matilda Joslyn Gage.
In an era when American women could not own property, sign legal documents or attend medical school, Gage’s 1883 essay “Woman as Inventor” argued that throughout history, women’s ideas and inventions had been overlooked, minimized, or outright stolen by men.
Gloria Steinem, who spearheaded efforts to have Gage’s Fayetteville, New York home turned into a museum and research centre, once said this of her: “Matilda was ahead of the women who were ahead of her time.”
In addition to Gage herself, Carmichael’s groundbreaking book explores women like Hatshepsut, an ancient Egyptian ruler whose name was chiseled off walls; Marie-Catherine d’Aulnoy, who coined the term “fairy tales”; and Milicent Patrick, who created one of the most iconic monsters in Hollywood.
“It’s time to set the record straight, write these remarkable women back into the history books and give them the credit they deserve,” the award-winning author said.
Carmichael uncovered the accounts through extensive research and has included some that aren’t available anywhere else for young readers, in print or online.
A diverse group of women from around the world are bookended by two original erasure poems by the author that highlight the book’s theme of women’s work and achievements.
Eye-catching portraits by Roxanne Rainville help readers visualize these remarkable women.
While many of the book’s subjects had little support, The Matilda Effect references allies and their importance.
For Milicent Patrick, raised in a difficult home by a domineering father, Hollywood gave her grown self a chance to shine when her artistic gifts came to the attention of Universal Studios.
However, when the make-up director claimed credit for Milicent’s design for the Creature from the Black Lagoon with his webbed feet, belly scales and moveable gills—and then fired her— sculptor Chris Mueller insisted on giving Milicent the credit she deserves, Carmichael noted.
“Much erasure happened because, when it was time to write the history books, men were often holding the pens. Some women were erased twice: once in their own times, and again when male historians and archaeologists interpreted evidence of the past using modern-day assumptions about women,” she said.
“Official histories have often focused on things done and said by men, mentioning women as afterthoughts or exceptions.”
A wildlife geneticist by training, L.E. Carmichael is the author of over 20 non-fiction books for young readers.
To make these women come alive in a scholarly yet gentle, accessible way, Carmichael scoured over 470 books, research reports, historical periodicals, letters and diaries, patent records and court transcripts, including obscure, out-of-print books.
She tracked all the places where credible primary sources contradict what’s been written online, and has made the list available on her website, with notes on how she sifted facts from popular fictions.
“I want readers to be inspired and outraged in equal measures. And I want them to channel that outrage into action—that’s why I included a section in the back matter on how to end the Matilda Effect,” Carmichael said.
“These same patterns of erasure have played out for more than 3,400 years, but that doesn’t mean we have to stand back and watch it keep happening.”
For educators, the author includes numerous cross-curricular applications in history, STEM and biography, and additional material in the end matter includes notes from the author and illustrator, information on how to take action to help end the Matilda Effect, a glossary, author’s sources, further reading, and an index.
Carmichael notes five additional major mechanisms of erasure impacting women across the centuries. These include disinformation campaigns (by historians who omitted or changed details of a woman’s story), self-erasure (by women who rewrote their own stories to protect themselves), and disguise—women pretending to be men to do things only men were allowed to do.
Occasionally, erasure was classified: affecting female soldiers and spies whose accomplishments were labelled “top secret” or otherwise officially withheld.
The author notes that an omnibus of “isms” is another lump cause of erasure, calling out “the combined effects of sexism, racism, colonialism, agism, ableism, homophobia, and all the other prejudices that make people think it’s OK to dismiss women’s contributions (and women themselves).”
The book has earned strong reviews in the months leading up to its October 2026 publication date. A starred review in School Library Journal calls it a “treasure trove,” while Kirkus Reviews describes The Matilda Effect as “A significant contribution to feminist history: nuanced, frank, and furious.”
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Early Reviews for The Matilda Effect
STARRED REVIEW FROM SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL:
“Moving from ancient to modern times, this treasure trove of women’s lives and accomplishments is equally informative and compelling. A very strong first buy.” –Tamara Saarinen, School Library Journal
KIRKUS REVIEWS
“A significant contribution to feminist history: nuanced, frank, and furious.” – Kirkus Reviews
BOOKLIST
“This inviting offering shows the impact the Matilda Effect has had on the legacies of 25 talented women … filled with kid-friendly biographical details.”
An Interview with author L.E. Carmichael
Q: Your book, The Matilda Effect: How 25 Women Were Erased From History, honors the nineteenth-century writer and women’s rights activist Matilda Joslyn Gage, the namesake of a phenomenon known as the Matilda Effect. With the recent death of multi-generation feminist icon Gloria Steinem, who championed Gage and the effort to turn her former Fayetteville, New York home into a museum, is there a fresh new moment to re-examine the Matilda Effect?
A: Well, Gloria Steinem once said this of Matilda Joslyn Gage: “Matilda was ahead of the women who were ahead of their time.” The 19th century American suffragist and equal rights activist devoted herself to fighting against erasure and other injustices in an era when American women could not own property, sign legal documents or attend medical school. Her 1883 essay “Woman as Inventor” argued that throughout history, women’s ideas and inventions had been overlooked, minimized, or outright stolen by men. We owe a great deal to both of these women, and how amazing is it that Steinem recognized Matilda as paving the way for others.
Q. You’ve pored over almost 500 different sources for this book. To what extent have women and their accomplishments actually been erased from the history books?
A: It took me almost 500 sources to find enough information to fill a 112-page children’s book! For every woman in the book, unanswered questions remain. For every woman in the book, there many, many more women I had to omit because information was too patchy or unreliable to fill a three-page profile. And there are countless others who’ve been erased so thoroughly, we’ll never be able to recover their names, much less their stories. There’s no way to measure how many women have been erased, and for me, that question is less interesting, anyway. I wrote this book to figure out HOW women get erased, which meant focusing on WHY women’s contributions are so often perceived as less valuable than men’s in the first place.
Q: Are there some noteable exceptions–women whose achievements were not erased, and why did they make it into the books?
A:Well, Marie Curie springs to mind! How many people (of any gender) win TWO Nobel prizes? The question of why some women become famous while other, equally accomplished women don’t is, unfortunately, a question for a different book. I didn’t do any research on that topic, so I have no evidence one way or the other. But I suspect that at least some of the famous women had allies—men (most likely) who insisted on sharing or ceding the spotlight.
Q: Can you describe some of the varied forms erasure has taken over millennia?
A: I identified six different mechanisms of erasure while working on this book.
- There’s the Matilda Effect: affecting women in STEM, the arts, and all other fields of awesomeness.
- Disinformation campaigns were used by historians who omitted or changed details of a woman’s story.
- With self-erasure, women rewrote their own stories to protect themselves from prejudice or discrimination.
- Disguise allowed a woman to pretend to be a man so she could do stuff women weren’t allowed to do.
- “It’s classified” includes female soldiers and spies whose accomplishments were labelled Top Secret or otherwise officially withheld.
- The isms: this is the one that leads to all the other ones. I’m talking about the combined effects of sexism, racism, colonialism, agism, ableism, homophobia, and all the other prejudices that make people think it’s OK to dismiss women’s contributions (and women themselves).
Q: Is erasure still happening, or in danger of happening?
A: It is absolutely still happening, and it doesn’t only affect women. Organized censorship campaigns are entirely about whose stories are considered worthy of being told.
Q: How does your scientific background inspire your writing?
A: I was a wildlife geneticist, so my expertise is in DNA and ecology: nature and the environment are topics I write about often. Like most kids, I also care deeply about justice, which explains my four books on forensic science! More importantly, scientific training taught me two things: how to ask questions, and how to find the answers. All of my writing—whether fiction or nonfiction—is grounded in research. And I’m always writing to understand how the world works and why people do the things they do.
Q: How did you go from being a scientist to being a children’s writer?
A: I’ve wanted to be a novelist since I was a little girl, but when I reached high school, my dad said, “It’s great to have a dream, sweetheart, but how will you buy groceries?” In fairness, he wasn’t wrong—writing is a terrible way to make a living! Right around the same time, I read Joseph Waumbaugh’s The Blooding, about the first time DNA fingerprinting was used to solve a murder. It’s spellbinding, and since I loved science, I decided to be a scientific crime-fighter by day and a writer by night. I was halfway through my PhD before it occurred to me that you don’t need a doctorate for a backup plan… so when I graduated, I got a job as a children’s bookseller and started submitting my (terrible) novels to publishers. I got nowhere, until it occurred to me that there’s a real need for people who can explain science to kids. Since that lightbulb moment, I’ve published more than 20 nonfiction books. And now, I’m back in graduate school to learn how to write novels.
Q: What’s the coolest things you’ve learned about an animal while researching a book?
A: It’s almost impossible to choose just one! A favourite from The Boreal Forest is that, in winter, shrews save energy by shrinking their brains. I feel much less smart when it’s cold and dreary outside, so I definitely relate.
Q: Were you a big reader as a kid? What were some of your favourite books?
A: I was an insatiable reader: books, magazines, cereal boxes—if it had words on it, I would read them! I loved L. M. Montgomery, and The Hobbit, and Nathaniel Benchley’s Kilroy and the Gull (about a seagull who helps a baby orca escape from an aquarium). My favourites, though, were two illustrated collections of fairy tales. I read them over and over again, and they’re on my bookshelf to this day.
Q: What’s your favourite fairy tale, and why?
A: I loved “The White Cat,” which is about an enchanted princess who gives the prince she loves everything he needs to win his father’s kingdom—and then tells the prince they don’t need it, because she’s already got six of her own! It was the only fairy tale in my collections where the princess saved the prince. When I grew up, I learned that “The White Cat” was written in the 17th century by Madame d’Aulnoy, a French aristocrat who was married at age 13 to a man in his 40s. She escaped the marriage by falsely accusing her husband of treason against the King! In the fallout, d’Aulnoy fled the country, but was allowed to return several years later, possibly as a reward for spying on Spain during her exile. As if all that weren’t cool enough, d’Aulony coined the phrase “fairy tale” in 1690! Not the tales themselves (many of which existed long before she did), but the name we know them by today. Many of the fairy tales she wrote feature active heroines and challenge the notion that marriage equals happily-ever-after. In the 17th century, they were feminist and deeply subversive.
Q: What do you hope readers find in your books?
A: I hope they discover at least one sentence that makes their eyes go wide with wonder … Most of all, I hope they’re inspired to learn more: to ask their own questions and go in search of answers. And maybe they’ll use their newfound knowledge to make their world a better place.