When you think of an inventor, do you think of a woman? One random scroll on the internet suggests the larger world thinks otherwise. It is under the impression that women have the intellectual range of a teaspoon and society, at large, wouldn’t have reached where it is today if it hadn’t been for men’s sweat and blood. A litany of Instagram comments passionately question women’s existence and their contributions to humankind every passing day.
Take a look –
Note that this is only a tiny droplet of the misogynistic ocean that our social media feeds often become. The opinion that men (singlehandedly) built society is nothing new. Incels and MRAs dedicate their lives to this school of thought. They believe women haven’t had any contribution to society apart from birthing babies (because that is so easy, right?).
Also, historically, hasn’t women’s basic right to be always triggered men in power? If society is man-made, isn’t it primarily because women never got opportunities to grow, to begin with? Where women wanted to express their scientific or artistic prowess, history is filled with examples where they had to do it under a male pseudonym because society is anything but accepting of a woman’s ambition. If you haven’t read about women scientists enough, it’s not because there aren’t any women inventors, but probably because we don’t want the world to know of them.
Here are 10 great women’s inventions that changed the world –
1. Mary Anderson – The Windshield Wiper
Mary Anderson, a woman, originally came up with the idea of a windshield wiper, and, of course, she didn’t receive due credit in her lifetime. Anderson was on a streetcar in New York City on one frosty day when she conceived of her novel idea after observing how much of a hassle it was for drivers to open the car windows or stop the vehicle to clear the vision.
In 1903, Anderson received a 17-year patent for her ‘window cleaning device’. It was made from a lever-operated rubber blade allowing the driver to clear rain, snow, and any obstruction in vision by operating the device from inside the car. While her invention was revolutionary, Anderson could not find interested buyers since, and I quote, they did “not consider it to be of such commercial value“. There was also a belief that such a device could also distract drivers.
Anderson eventually stopped trying to get companies interested in her invention, and her patent expired. In 1922, Cadillac began manufacturing cars where windshield wiper was a standard feature. It was not until 2011 that Anderson got her due acknowledgement and was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for her invention, which was way ahead of her time.
2. Letitia Mumford Geer – One-Hand Medical Syringe
Medical syringes have been around for a long time. However, the design of modern syringes has been heavily inspired by Letitia Mumford Geer’s invention of the one-hand syringe. Geer was a nurse who filed a patent for a unique syringe that could be used with a single hand in 1896. Her design suggested a significantly simple, easy-to-hold, and inexpensive syringe that even patients could administer to themselves.
Three years later in 1899, Geer obtained the patent for her invention. Her design included a cylindrical glass barrel, a piston rod, a nozzle, and a hook-shaped handle positioned within reach of the fingers of the hand-in-use. Despite the influence her work has on modern-day syringes, her story is often left out in history.
3. Folding Bed – Sarah E. Goode
Sarah E. Goode was an African-American woman. She was born into slavery and became an entrepreneur after gaining her freedom. Sometime around 1855, she was operating a furniture store with her husband on a street in Chicago. Observing the problem of limited space in small houses, she designed and received a patent for a cabinet bed.
It’s often reported her invention became a precursor to the Murphy bed. Her design was effective because it allowed both for a comfortable sleep and served as a storage space for personal items. The design enabled the bed to be lifted without breaking into a roll-top desk with compartments for storing stationery and supplies. The system at Goode’s time was designed against women, and for a woman of African-American identity to get a patent was pioneering. She was the fourth African-American woman to receive a US patent.
4. Maria E. Beasley – Improved Life Rafts
Maria Beasley was an innovator in every sense. It’s written that it was her business to save lives. Throughout her lifetime, she secured about 15 patents for her inventions, including a footwarmer, improved life raft designs, and an anti-derailment device for trains, among others.
Beasley obtained two patents for life rafts between 1880 and 1882. Her designs comprised collapsible metal floats with air-tight containers that enabled the raft to be easily stored for future use, notes an American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers blog.
5. Melitta Bentz – Paper Coffee Filter
Even though coffee filtration predated Melitta Liebscher, it was largely ineffective as it rarely resulted in flavoured, particle-free coffee. Unhappy with the cumbersome and unfruitful process of brewing coffee in her time, the German homemaker punctured holes in a brass pot and lined it with a blotting paper from her son’s school notebook. This experiment resulted in a sediment-free flavourful coffee.
Sensing the business potential of her discovery, she applied for a patent and became an entrepreneur, founding her company with a capital of 72 pfennigs. Her husband and sons were her first employees. Within a few years, the family business was flourishing and it went on to become a multimillion-dollar enterprise that exists even today.
6. Margaret A. Wilcox – Automotive Heating System
Mechanical engineer Margaret A. Wilcox patented the car heater in 1893 after realising she could re-direct the engine heat to warm the vehicle’s passenger cabin. But her road wasn’t easy. Why, you ask? Well, because she was a woman and women applying for patents at the time was something the society wasn’t accustomed to.
Originally, Wilcox’s design did not have a system to regulate the temperature. Therefore, it posed a risk of overheating. However, her car heater remains a precursor to the subsequently reworked automotive heaters ubiquitous today.
7. Hedy Lamarr – Technology that led to the foundation of Wi-Fi
Hedy Lamarr was an actor and a groundbreaking inventor who co-invented frequency-hopping technology. She and then-renowned composer George Antheil patented a “secret communications system” during World War II that enabled torpedo receivers and radio guidance transmitters to jump between frequencies simultaneously.
However, when they took their design to the Navy, they were immediately shunned. After the war, their creation saw a rebirth as electrical manufacturer Sylvania utilised frequency hopping to build a safer system of communication with submarines, writes Dave Roos in History. Later on, her pathbreaking invention went on to become a foundational technology for the development of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth communications
8. Gladys West – A Lesser-known Pioneer behind the development of GPS
The Guardian writes of Gladys West as the hidden figure behind the development of GPS (Global Positioning System). West is a mathematician who modelled the shape of the Earth, which later became the basis for the GPS orbit.
In 1956, West scored a job offer from the naval base in Virginia, following a brief teaching stint. There, she was the second Black woman to have been hired as a programmer. From the mid-1970s, she programmed an IBM 7030 Stretch computer to compute accurate calculations of Earth’s shape. Her work became foundational for the development of GPS.
9. Marion Donovan – Waterproof Diaper Cover
Can you imagine there was a time when waterproof baby diapers did not exist? Marion Donovan wanted to eradicate the achingly frustrating task of repetitively cleaning the soiled cloth diapers, baby clothing, and the bedspread. Therefore, according to the US National Inventors Hall of Fame, Donovan took the task upon herself and created a diaper cover.
Not only did her diaper keep the baby and their surroundings dry, but it also enabled their skin to breathe and remain rash-free. Calling the diaper ‘Boater’, she tried to sell her creation but met with little success. Result? She created her own manufacturing firm and later sold the company and the patents to Keko Corporation for $1 million.
10. Sumerian Women from Ancient Mesopotamia – Beer
Society’s perception of alcohol may be sexist but when you realise the history of alcohol finds women at the centre, you question how did we even land here? Women were the original brewers of beer. The earliest evidence of beer can be traced to ancient Mesopotamia where priestesses brewed beer and sang hymns to worship Ninkasi, the Sumerian goddess of beer. Saint Hildegard of Bingen’s writings on preservative properties of hops in beer in the Middle Ages are considered a major innovation in beer technology, notes The Guardian piece. Where drinking beer may be associated with men, women have been drinking and brewing it, since the beginning of beer itself.
There’s an endless list of women’s inventions that have significantly transformed living standards. We don’t read about them enough. We don’t know them. If history is full of men’s bravado, it’s also true that history has been very excluding of women and their rights. We do not have to speak of women’s scientific and artistic work to make a point about how they make a difference. They do so by simply existing. They have done so, since the beginning. And let’s not forget how humankind exists in the first place.
