Did you know Margaret Sanger was an inspiration for Wonder Woman?

I’ve just finished reading The Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore, and it really was a complicated tale bound in secrecy. “The story of Wonder Woman’s origins wasn’t a neglected history, waiting to be written.  It was a family secret, locked in a closet.”  The character’s genesis owed much to  the suffrage movement and the women’s rights movement.  Her creator was William Molton Marston,  a psychologist/professor who did pioneering work on the polygraph (lie detector) before his academic career was discredited.

After the original principals were gone or retired, the later Wonder Woman became involved in the feminist movement. “In that battle Wonder Woman wasn’t caught in the crossfire; Wonder Woman was the ammunition.”

The book is extensively documented (73 pages of notes) and makes for a fascinating read.