Oh No He Didn't! Brilliant Women and the Men Who Took Credit for Their Work - by Wendy J Murphy

About the Book

Stories of brilliant women whose inventions, discoveries, and creations were credited to the men who stole them.

Book Synopsis

Don't you hate it when someone takes credit for another person's idea? It happens a lot, and the people who lose out are often women. This book tells the stories of women whose inventions, discoveries, and creations were credited to men-women like Zelda Fitzgerald, the novelist, painter, and playwright who was more than F. Scott's wife, and Margaret Knight, who invented the flat-bottomed paper bag but saw the patent go to a man who stole off to the Patent Office with her idea. By telling the stories of the brilliant women artists, inventors, scientists, architects, and mathematicians who were denied their due, Oh No He Didn't! will help all women tackle obstacles and create a kinship of understanding that will inspire and transcend generations.

Review Quotes

Murphy, an attorney specializing in women's rights and violence against women and children, focuses her book on innovative and genius women throughout history and the men who took credit for their contributions to physics, astronomy, economics, the arts, and architecture. Utilizing archival material and other research, her book profiles many of these women. Her list includes Eunice Foote, who was the first to demonstrate the greenhouse effect; novelist/painter Zelda Fitzgerald, whose own husband, F. Scott Fitzgerald, put her words in his books; and so many others. Murphy draws from her own personal experiences too; a professor and then a student plagiarized her work. She writes with a jaded, edgy humor, with chapter titles like "A Woman Discovered Nuclear Fusion; a Man Got Her Prize" and "A Woman Invented Monopoly to Discourage Greed, Then a Greedy Man Stole It." Her writing style is bold and relatable without sacrificing historical accuracy or seriousness. Each chapter ends with references to resources for further reading. This exceptional book's stories of plagiarism showcase persistence and the insidious and enduring ways in which sexism informs and shapes the contemporary world. Murphy will motivate readers to challenge stereotypes.

-Library Journal

I see the spirit of my great-great-grandmother Elizabeth Cady Stanton in all these women, and I hear her voice in the words of Wendy Murphy not only in this book but in her tireless fight for the Equal Rights Amendment. Her leadership, brilliance, and fierce refusal to compromise or accept less than full equality for women are unrivaled. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Alice Paul are so proud as we stand on their shoulders.

-Coline Jenkins, great-great-granddaughter of Elizabeth Cady Stanton