Monopoly. A classic, enthralling game that strings together groups of people; be it a  regular Saturday evening or a competitive world championship. The rolling of each dice,  moving around of tokens and buying up of properties on the board signifies something.  Something aside from capitalist greed. It signifies the vanishing story of its creator. Behind  Mr. Monopoly’s infamous monocle lies the untold story of a woman – Elizabeth Magie.  

The game as we know it today was derived from Elizabeth Magie’s “The Landlord Game”  which can be traced back to 1903. Being an anti-monopolist and progressive woman in the early 1900s, Magie aimed to explain Henry George’s single tax theory through her board game. The game that now commemorates unfettered capitalism, was crafted to demonstrate the evils of the system at the expense of others. 

Pursuing her educational mission, Magie designed a game with two distinct sets of rules –  anti-monopolist and monopolist. The anti-monopolist set rewarded all players during wealth creation as opposed to the monopolist set which aimed to form monopolies and crush opponents. Evidently, the monopolist side of the game gained flaming popularity while Magie’s educational purpose seemed to vanish along with the anti-monopolist set.  

The Landlord Game was a whirlwind of fun and spread freely in passed-along homemade versions over the years. The game offered an entertaining escape from the harsh realities of the Great Depression and became celebrated as “the monopoly game”. But here’s the catch- Lizzie Magie never got the credit she deserved for lifting people’s spirits through her intellectual genius. Instead, a man called Charles Darrow reaped the rewards of her intellect and hard work.  

Famously known as the creator of Monopoly, Charles Darrow, was merely a man who redesigned the board after being introduced to the Landlord Game by his childhood friend. Being completely new to the game, Darrow asked for a written copy of the rules and went on to utilize the board to his strategic advantage. He solely distributed the game under the name Monopoly before selling the copyright to Parker Brothers in 1935. As the years passed, the idea that the game had been created solely by Charles Darrow had become popular folklore. The man went from rags to riches while Elizabeth Magie, the original creator, was given $500 for her game patent.  

“Being unemployed at the time, and badly needing anything to occupy my time, I made by hand a very crude game for the sole purpose of amusing myself ” claimed Darrow. A few simple lies monopolized Magie’s territory and the game lost its connection to its true creator. An Intellectual Genius.  

Elizabeth Magie’s legacy is one that the world cannot and should not forget. Throughout history, women’s contributions have routinely been overlooked, forgotten or erased by men eager to take credit for their ideas. Lizzie Magie deserves to be acknowledged for her groundbreaking innovation from a century ago. Its time we break the stereotypical association of Mr. Monopoly to a man and recognize the woman who made it all possible.  Elizabeth Magie.