Lizzie Magie, The Feminist Activist Who Actually Invented The Monopoly Board Game
A renaissance woman of many talents was the innovator of a pop culture icon but only receive proper credit after her death
No matter how much technology advances, board games have long been a popular form of entertainment. Although there are countless games to choose from, the granddaddy of them all is Monopoly, which has the all-American goal of dominating in business and real estate and making the most money possible. Its origins are actually much older than many might think, and its inventor was actually a feminist activist who came up with and patented the idea decades before it became popular.
Elizabeth “Lizzie” Magie was born in 1866 in Illinois to an abolitionist newspaper publisher and his wife. It was from them that she clearly inherited her activist spirit and became a remarkable woman whose contributions have long been overshadowed. An inventor, writer, feminist, and political activist, she created the earliest version of what would become one of the world’s most popular board games of all time.
Magie was a woman of many talents. During her career, she worked as a stenographer, secretary, writer, and at times even performed on stage as an actress and comedian.
