Say Thanks! 72 Things You Didn’t Know Women Invented
Say Thanks! 72 Things You Didn’t Know Women Invented
In recognition of International Women's Day -- women who proved lady brains are not inferior and never were.
Let me tell you something crazy. Ready?
Harvard University opened in 1636. 387 years ago. For the first 200 years, they wouldn’t let women attend. Which means they’ve had female students for less than half the time they’ve been open.
Know why?
Men thought lady brains were inferior. It’s a dumb thing people used to believe. Right up there with thinking the earth was flat.
Meanwhile, women were proving what some people still don’t believe. There is no difference between a male and female brain.
Here’s 72 things you didn’t know women invented…
***
Because women belong in the kitchen?
Men used to say a woman belonged in the kitchen. Well, these women didn’t like the way kitchens worked so they invented some cool stuff.
1. The electric refridgerator was invented in 1914 by Florence Parpart
2. The dishwasher was invented by Josephine Cochran in 1872.
3. The foot-pedal trash can was invented by Lillian Gilbreth, a psychologist and engineer who also invented the electric food mixer. She had 12 kids, so being efficient was high on the list!
4. The fruit press was invented in 1916 by Madeline Turner because she was sick of squeezing fruit juice every morning. The patent review team called her invention ingenious. It even made apple juice.
5. The clothes wringer was invented by Ellen Elgin in the 1880s
6. The toliet brush was invented by Dorothy Rogers in 1950.
***
A woman’s place is in the home?
That’s what men used to say. But “home” had some failings. So women got busy and fixed some of those little problems, too.
7. Central heating gas furnace was invented by Alice Parker in 1919.
8. The electric water heater was invented in 1917 by Ida Forbes because she thought it made more sense than using gasoline to heat our water.
9. Home security was invented in 1966 by Marie Van Brittan Brown. She was a nurse who worked the night shift a lot. Her neighborhood had a high crime rate and police didn’t respond fast.So she invented a closed-circuit television security system, or CCTV, to monitor her house.
***
Yummy for tummy!
Men liked when women made yummy things to eat. Sometimes they made yummy things no one had ever made before!
10. The original ice cream maker was invented by Nancy Johnson in 1843
11. Chocolate chip cookies were invented by Ruth Wakefield in 1938 when she was baking cookies for her tourist lodge and ran out of bakers melting chocolate squares so she broke a chocolate bar into pieces instead.
12. Mint chocolate chip ice cream was invented in 1973 by culinary student Marilyn Ricketts while studying at South Devon College in England. In 2017, it was the fourth favorite flavor in America
13. Vacuum canning was invented in 1872 by Amanda Theodosia Jones. She also invented the oil burner, which she patented in 1890.
14. Beer was invented and created by women in Sumeria and Mesopotamia almost seven thousand years ago. Only women were allowed to drink beer, operate breweries or run taverns for centuries.
15. The pour over coffee filter was invented in in 1908 by Melitta Bentz, who was a woman long before she was a brand!
***
Inventing fun for the kiddos…
Men thought women should be taking care of children. Some women invented things that took care of more children than their own.
16. Alphabet blocks were patented in 1882 by Adeline D. T. Whitney who thought they’d make spelling fun.
17. Child carriers were invented by nurse Ann Moore in the 1960s, She got the idea when she worked as a Peace Corps nurse in Togo, West Africa. She called hers the Snugli.
18. Disposable diapers were invented by Marion Donovan in 1946.
19. Q-Tips. In 1924, Ziuta Gerstenzang was bathing her newborn. She took a little piece of cotton and wrapped it around the tip of a toothpick and used the soft cotton to clean the baby’s ears. Her husband Leo watched her, filed and patent and left her name off the patent application. Sigh.
20. The barbie doll was invented in 1959 by Ruth Handler after watching her kids play with paper dolls. She named it Barbie after her daughter Barbara. The Ken doll was named after her son Ken.
***
Calling Doctor Mom…
Sometimes a kiss on the forehead isn’t enough. So these women stepped up and saved our collective butts whether they had kids or not.
21. The first antifungal medication was invented in 1948 by Rachel Brown and Elizabeth Lee Hazen. It didn’t just cure fungal infections in people. It also saved infected trees and historical art damaged by water and mold.
22. Cardiovascular drugs and anticoagulents were developed by Ruth Wexler who has over 190 medical patents in her name
23. Immunosuppressive drugs were created by Gertrude Belle Elion in 1957. She also developed drugs for treating herpes, malaria, AIDS, and cancer and won a Nobel Prize in 1988.
24. Laser cataract surgery was developed in 1981 by Patricia Bath.
25. The Pertussis vaccine was invented in 1914 by Leila Alice Denmark
26. Chemotherapy was pioneered in the 1940s by Jane Cooke Wright
27. ReCell — This oneis wild! In 1903, Dr. Fiona Wood and medical scientist Marie Stoner invented a way to grow skin right ON burn patients instead of in a flask. Because that’s what people were doing. Growing skin in a flask and doing skin transplants. In 1905, they launched ReCell, a spray-on skin cell growing solution that revolutionalized healing for burn victims.
28. The cure for African Sleeping Sickness was invented by Louise Pearce.
***
More doctor mom…
Sometimes women had to invent better equipment and medical processes, too. Because no one else had.
29. Medical syringes — In 1899, Letitia Geer developed the single-handed syringe that medical practitioners use to this day.
30. Test strips for diabetes and other illnesses were invented in 1948 by Helen M. Free who won awards for her work in chemistry.
31. Stem cell isolation. In 1991, Ann Tsukamoto co-patented the process of isolating human stem cells in bone marrow. It was a giant breakthrough in cancer research and has saved thousands of lives.
32. The Blissymbol Printer is a touch pad device that allows non-verbal people to communicate using symbols that convert pictures to words. It was invented by 12-year-old Rachel Zimmerman from Ontario, Canada
***
Way better than Buzzfeed!
Women didn’t need the help of AI to create these tests and quizzes
33. Apgar score was invented in 1952 by Virginia Apgar. It gave doctors a quick means to evaluate a newborns’ health at one and five minutes after delivery and in response to resuscitation when needed.
34. Myers–Briggs type indicator (MBTI) was invented by the mother and daughter team Katherine Cook Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers.
35. Yes or no? The pregnancy test was invented by Margaret Crane in 1967 but it didn’t go on sale to the public until 1977
36. The test to diagnose scarlet fever was invented by microbiologist and physician Gladys Dick
***
Keeping us all safe…
You know women — always telling someone to be careful, you’re going to put an eye out. Well, these women made sure we’re ALL safe…
37. Collapsible life rafts were invented in 1880 by Maria Beasley. Before that, ships used slabs of wood or metal with no sides so they could stack them in the belly of the ship. The titanic bought her life rafts. Darn shame the men in charge didn’t buy enough. She’d have saved more people.
38. Fire Escapes were invented in 1887 by Anna Connelly so people wouldn’t fall to their death when a building was on fire.
39. An anti-derailment device for trains was also Maria Beasley
40. The tuberculin test still used today was invented by Florence Seibert
41. Bullet proof fibre (Kevlar) was invented in 1966 by Stephanie Kwolek.
42. Retractable dog leashes were invented by Mary A. Delaney
***
Keeping us safe on the road, too!
Because humans are an accident looking to happen. Women to the rescue!
43. Windshield wipers were invented in 1903 by Mary Anderson.Crazy story. Mary Anderson of Birmingham, Alabama was visiting New York in 1903. She was on a trolley when it started to pour. Horrified, she watched the driver stick his head out the side window and wipe the windshield with his arm. While driving. She went home and invented windshield wipers.
44. The car heater was developed in 1893 by Margaret A. Wilcox who figured out how to channel air over the engine and into the vehicle. Because no one should get frostbite traveling in a car, for goodness sakes!
45. The turn signal and brake signal were invented by Florence Lawrence, who was also an actress. And also Canadian.
46. A system for train noise reduction was invented by Mary Walton in 1881. Because y’all gonna go deaf from that noise if a woman don’t fix it. New York’s Metropolitan Railroad bought it instantly.
***
Cause “the ladies” like to talk, you know!
Makes perfect sense to invent communication methods, then. See?
47. Wireless transmission technology was invented by movie star Hedy Lamar in 1941. She’s why we have Bluetooth, GPS, and WiFi.
48. The first computer algorithm was invented by Ada Lovelace, 1843
49. The first computer language compiler was invented by Grace Hopper in 1952. She also co-invented the COBOL computer language, which is the first universal programming language.
50. Gif Animations were invented by Lisa Gelobter who created the animation system used for GIF, Shockwave, Hulu & more.
51. VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) was invented by Marian Croak in 1982
52. The first word processor was invented in 1968 by Evelyn Berezin.
***
Not crazy, just crazy brilliant!
Long ago, men doctors liked to say too much learning made women crazy. These women were crazy indeed. Crazy brilliant.
53. The atomic-resolution ETEM electron microscope.
It took Pratibha Gai 20 years to create the original atomic-resolution ETEM, or environmental transmission electron microscope. Her microscope made it possible to visualize chemical reactions at atomic scale. She chose not to patent it to further science.
54. CRISPR gene editing was invented by Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Anne Doudna to modify the genomes of living organisms.
55. The first solar powered house was invented by Maria Telkes in 1947. Guess we all hate power bills. She did more than just complain. :)
56. Ultra fast lasers were invented by Ursula Keller. They’re used in many industries. For example, doctors use them to precisely cut out cancers.
57. The intracellular micropipette electrode was invented in 1921 by Ida Hyde, Harvard Medical School’s first female researcher. It let her monitor and stimulate a cell without disturbing the cell wall. The technology she invented is still extensively used in today’s science laboratories.
***
Yes, it IS actually rocket science!
Back when we put a man on the moon, women weren’t allowed to be astronauts. But without women, men wouldn’t have gone into space either. Truth!
58. Software that made the 1969 moon landing possible was created by computer scientist Margaret Hamilton.
59. Hydyne rocket fuel was invented in 1957 by Mary Sherman Morgan, who made it possible to launch America’s first satellite, Explorer I into orbit.
60. Space station batteries were invented by Olga Gonzalez-Sanabria in 1980. Solar power allows the Int. Space Station to function, but Earth blocks the sun’s rays for 1/3 of its rotation. Thanks to Olga’s batteries, the Space Station never loses power even in the dark part of the rotation.
61. The space rocket propulsion system was invented by Yvonne Brill in 1974. Her work is why self-propelling satellites have become possible.
***
Girls just wanna have fun…
Some fun stuff that women invented.
62. Science fiction was invented by Mary Shelley in 1818. Her book Frankenstein was the first book listed in the “Science Fiction” genre.
63. Rock’ n’ roll! During the 1930s, Sister Rosetta Tharpe was the first to mix folk music, gospel and blues with the rock & roll pulsating swing. Her style is the predecessor to music legends like Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash.
64. Monopoly. In 1904, Elizabeth J. Magie patented “The Landlord’s Game” initially designed to showcase the evil of unchecked capitalism. 30 years later it was ripped off by some dude and sold to Parker Brothers. Sigh.
65. Glow in the dark guitar picks were invented by Rosemary D’Andrea
66. Tomb Raider was created by Rhianna Pratchett, who won Outstanding Achievement in Videogame Writing for that fine bit of work!
***
Liar liar pants on fire
Sometimes, women invented stuff and men stole it. The list is probably way longer than anyone realizes. Here’s just a few…
67. Rosalind Franklin discovered the double-helix structure of DNA only to have two men take credit and win the Nobel Prize for her work.
68. Lise Meitner discovered nuclear fission, only to have Otto Hahn remove her name from the paper and win the 1944 prize in chemistry from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
69. In 1871, Margaret Knight invented the square bottom paper bag only to have her invention stolen by a man who said a woman couldn’t have invented it. She fought back and won the patent battle.
70. Vera Rubin discovered dark matter only to have Kent Ford take credit
71. Esther Lederberg discovered the process of creating RNA from DNA but her husband was awarded the Nobel Prize for her work.
72. In 1961, Martha Coston invented the signal flares now used by the navy, but credit was given to her husband even though he was dead when she worked on it. Took her 12 years to be given credit.
There’s tons more…
Feeding tubes, sanitary belts, birth control pills, the bra. I mean heck, the circular saw was invented in 1810 by by Tabitha Babbitt, a Shaker woman who attached a circular blade to her spinning wheel so men could cut things they couldn’t cut with a straight saw. Marie Curie discovered radium and polonium, won two Nobel Prizes and contributed to finding treatments for cancer.
I could double or triple this list without barely trying.
These are things our girls need to know.
They need to know how truly competent women are and always have been. And they need that far more than they need a pretty pink “girl power” shirt.
***