A clinical psychologist with thirty years of experience called my book “innovative” and “utterly fascinating.” A Kirkus reviewer described the same book as recycled CBT.
An AI overview attributes the skill set I created to Daniel Goleman. Another person incorrectly identifies it as metacognition.
Nothing prepares you to watch the work you’ve developed over decades be credited to men, both living and dead.
Understanding the Matilda Effect
The Matilda Effect is the systemic undervaluation of women’s intellectual contributions. While initially focused on scientific discovery, it applies broadly. And ranges from historically erased contributions of women to everyday instances where women’s work is attributed to men. Watching it happen to my work is disorienting and deeply painful. There’s a unique grief in seeing your intellectual labor erased as part of a broader pattern. In watching work I’m proud of being actively attributed to men who have likely never heard of it.
How I Created Thought Literacy
After a difficult childhood, a clinical psychologist told me I might never lead a normal functioning life. That didn’t sit right with me. I researched, self-experimented, and found a therapist who was not only a compassionate listener but a mentor who guided me when I was stuck.
I began teaching what I was learning and realized people wanted accessible ways to understand their thoughts. Psychologists and clients alike showed me these skills were missing. So I catalogued my framework and models and started to build out the skill set for thoughts, naming it thought literacy.
Like any system, thought literacy builds on prior research. To me, this was standard practice. No system is entirely independent. Goleman, Beck, Flavell (the men who get attributions for my work) all did the same thing.
Thought Literacy and Misattribution
Metacognition is thinking about thinking during problem-solving and learning. CBT is a reactive clinical treatment for mental health conditions. Thought literacy is a proactive life skill set, accessible to anyone, designed to manage thoughts in everyday life across relationships, emotions, decisions, stress, and goals.
Initially, I assumed misattribution was my fault. I over-explained, clarified, and emphasized distinctions repeatedly. Then I noticed the pattern. As a woman, I’ve been conditioned to justify, prove, and continually explain. Eventually I accepted there’s nothing I can do to make others recognize my work. I’m living the Matilda Effect, part of a larger pattern in which women’s contributions are minimized or reassigned to men.
Another pattern is my responses to this misattribution being policed. “You’re not allowed to be angry” is the message I’m receiving. Fortunately, this does not erase the people who have seen the value of my work and supported it, and I am deeply grateful to them.
Why Recognition Matters
Recognition matters not just for creators but for everyone. When women’s contributions are erased, we limit knowledge, innovation, and inspiration. Misattribution in this case also obscures the value of proactive cognitive skill development. People are incorrectly taught that thoughts are only for therapy or education, missing everyday tools for life.
Dedication to Mothers
Since men are typically called the father of a field, I assumed that one day I would be called the mother of thought literacy. Now I know that recognition is unlikely. So as an act of radical honesty, I’m claiming it: I am the mother of thought literacy.
This matters for me, for women whose work is erased, and for girls and young women who need to see that women create, innovate, and lead. And also for our male (and non-gendered) advocates.
This post is dedicated to all mothers, particularly:
- Florence Nightingale, mother of modern nursing and statistics
- Rosalind Franklin, mother of DNA research
- Mary Anning, mother of paleontology
- Ada Lovelace, mother of computing
- Grace Hopper, mother of computer programming
- Mary Shelley, mother of science fiction
- Lise Meitner, mother of nuclear fission
- Katherine Johnson, mother of orbital mechanics calculations for NASA
- Hypatia, mother of mathematics and philosophy in Alexandria
- Emmy Noether, mother of abstract algebra
- Rachel Carson, mother of the modern environmental movement
- Dorothy Hodgkin, mother of protein crystallography
- Barbara McClintock, mother of mobile genetic elements
- Marie Curie, mother of radioactivity research
- Jane Goodall, mother of modern primatology
- Margaret Hamilton, mother of software engineering for spaceflight
- Sophie Germain, mother of elasticity theory
- Chien-Shiung Wu, mother of experimental particle physics breakthroughs
- Mary Cartwright, mother of nonlinear mathematics and chaos theory
- Barbara Liskov, mother of programming language theory and computer science