Historically, women’s achievements in anything other than homemaking and raising a family have been largely ignored. Until the advent of the second World War, women, particularly married women, who had a job or even more appalling to the male ego, a career, or heaven forbid, a university education, were considered to be “blue stockings” and unfeminine.
However, women have made significant contributions to inventing and science. Some of the remarkable women whose revolutionary ideas changed the world include:
Martha Knight - 1870 patents a machine to produce flat-bottomed paper bags. She is also the first woman, in the United States, to fight a patent suit, and win. She defended her patent against a male inventor who had stolen her design and filed to patent it himself. He claimed that a woman couldn’t have the mechanical knowledge which is needed to invent a complex machine such as that.
Sarah E. Goode - 1885, born a slave in 1850, she was the first person to African American female inventor to obtain a patent. This was for her folding cabinet bed: a space-saver which was used as a desk when in its folded position.
Josephine Garis Cochran - 1889, invents the first working automatic dishwasher. At the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago, Illinois, her invention was first shown, and eventually became associated with the KitchenAid Company.
Mary Anderson - 1903, of Alabama, invents the windshield wiper. Patented in 1905, windshield wipers became standard equipment on cars only a decade later.
Mary Phelps Jacob – 1914 invents the modern bra. She became fed up with restrictive corsets and was thus inspired to design a comfortable upper-body undergarment. Her brassiere was made from two silk handkerchiefs and a ribbon and became a popular choice for many women. After she patented the invention, she proceeded to sell it to Warner Corset Company.
Marion Donovan - 1950 invents the disposable diaper. Established manufacturers, however show little interest in her invention, so she starts her own company. Her company is called Donovan Enterprises. She sells this new company, along with her diaper patent, to Keko Corporation in 1951 for a remarkable one million dollars.oceeded to sell it to Warner Corset Company.
Bette Nesmith – 1951 invents Liquid Paper, this was a quick-drying, white liquid which you painted onto paper to cover mistakes. Nesmith was a secretary in Texas when she first thought of her invention, which became such a success that it, grew into the Liquid Paper Company.
Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper – 1952, U.S. naval officer and mathematician, invents the computer compiler. This invention revolutionised computer programming. She, along with her team, also developed the very first user-friendly business computer programming language, COBOL.
Chemist Stephanie Louise Kwolek - 1964 invents Kevlar, a polymer fiber which is five times the strength of steel of the same weight and is now used, amongst others, in bulletproof vests and helmets.