You probably didn't think about Hedy Lamarr while you were checking your Instagram this morning. Why would you? She was a 1940s silver screen icon, often called the "most beautiful woman in the world." But honestly, without her, your phone would basically be a paperweight. She didn't just act; she co-invented frequency hopping, the literal foundation for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS. It’s wild how much of our modern world relies on things created by women that, for a long time, were just... ignored.
When people ask what have women invented, the list usually starts and ends with Marie Curie. Look, she was a genius, obviously. Two Nobel Prizes? Incredible. But focusing only on radiation misses the sheer scope of female ingenuity that touches everything from the beer in your fridge to the Kevlar in a soldier's vest.
We’re talking about a massive range of breakthroughs that were born out of necessity, frustration, or just pure "why hasn't anyone fixed this yet?" energy.
The Tech You’re Using Right Now
Let’s go back to Hedy Lamarr for a second because that story is genuinely insane. During World War II, she realized that radio-controlled torpedoes were too easy to jam. She teamed up with a composer named George Antheil—yes, a composer—and they developed a system that synchronized the transmitter and receiver by jumping across 88 different frequencies (the number of keys on a piano). The Navy basically patted her on the head and told her to go sell war bonds instead. It wasn't until decades later that her patent became the bedrock of the digital revolution.
Then there’s Ada Lovelace. In the mid-1800s, while working with Charles Babbage on his "Analytical Engine," she wrote what is widely considered the first computer program. Babbage saw a fancy calculator. Ada saw a machine that could manipulate symbols and potentially create music or art. She saw the future of computing before the computer even existed.
It’s not just the software, though. Think about the physical hardware.
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If you’ve ever used a computer with a "user-friendly" interface, you owe a debt to Mary Kenneth Keller. She was the first woman in the US to earn a PhD in Computer Science and helped develop BASIC, the programming language that made coding accessible to people who weren't just math nerds.
From Kitchen Counters to Outer Space
It’s easy to pigeonhole female inventors into "domestic" categories, but even those inventions changed the world’s economy. Take the dishwasher. Josephine Cochrane was a wealthy socialite who got tired of her servants chipping her fine china. In 1886, she famously said, "If nobody else is going to invent a dishwashing machine, I’ll do it myself." She didn’t just sketch it; she built it in a shed behind her house. Her design used high water pressure—a concept still used in your kitchen today. She eventually opened a factory that became KitchenAid.
But then you have someone like Stephanie Kwolek.
In 1965, Kwolek was working for DuPont, trying to find a lightweight fiber for tires because everyone was worried about a gasoline shortage. She ended up creating a liquid crystalline solution that was incredibly stiff and strong. Her supervisors almost threw it out because they thought the equipment was broken. That "mistake" became Kevlar. It’s five times stronger than steel. It’s in brake pads, spacecraft, and body armor that has saved thousands of lives.
- Mary Anderson (1903): Windshield wipers. She saw a trolley driver in New York struggling to see through sleet and sketched the solution on the spot. Cadillac was the first to make them standard.
- Alice Parker (1919): She patented the first central heating system using natural gas. Before her, you were basically just shoveling coal into a fireplace and hoping for the best.
- Dr. Shirley Jackson (1970s): A theoretical physicist at Bell Labs. Her research into subatomic particles led to the invention of the touch-tone phone, fiber optic cables, and the technology behind caller ID.
The Medical Breakthroughs We Take for Granted
When we talk about what have women invented in the medical field, it’s often a story of persistence against a system that didn't want them there.
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Gertrude Elion is a name you should know. She didn't have a PhD because she couldn't afford it during the Depression, yet she won a Nobel Prize. She developed 2-amino-6-mercaptopurine, which was the first major treatment for leukemia. She also developed the first antiviral drugs, leading to treatments for herpes and even the foundation for AZT used to treat HIV/AIDS.
Then there is the Apgar Score. If you’ve ever had a baby or been around one, you know the doctor does a quick test at one minute and five minutes after birth. That was Virginia Apgar. Before 1952, doctors just kind of eyeballed newborns to see if they were okay. Apgar created a standardized, five-point system (Appearance, Pulse, Grimace, Activity, Respiration) that drastically reduced infant mortality rates worldwide.
And let’s talk about the laserphaco probe. Patricia Bath, an ophthalmologist, invented this device in 1986 to treat cataracts. She was the first African American female doctor to receive a medical patent. Her invention allowed doctors to use lasers to vaporize cataracts quickly and nearly painlessly, restoring sight to people who had been blind for decades.
The Unexpected Stuff
Honestly, some of the best inventions are the ones that seem "small" but shifted culture.
- Monopoly: No, Charles Darrow didn’t invent it. Elizabeth Magie created "The Landlord’s Game" in 1904 to protest the dangers of monopolies. Darrow stole the idea, sold it to Parker Brothers, and became a millionaire while Magie got $500 and no royalties.
- The Paper Bag: Margaret Knight invented a machine in 1868 that could automatically fold and glue flat-bottomed paper bags. A guy named Charles Annan tried to steal the patent, arguing in court that a woman couldn't possibly understand the mechanics of the machine. She showed up with her blueprints and notes and crushed him.
- Beer: Historians and archaeologists generally agree that for most of human history, women were the primary brewers. In ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt, beer was considered a gift from goddesses, and women ran the taverns.
Why This History Was Muffled
For a long time, women couldn't hold patents in their own names. Under "coverture" laws in the US and UK, a woman’s legal identity was merged with her husband's. If she invented something, he owned it. Period. This makes it hard to track exactly how many early inventions were actually the work of wives, daughters, or sisters.
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Even when they could own patents, getting funding was a nightmare. Investors in the early 20th century weren't exactly lining up to hand cash to a woman in a lab coat. This led to many women selling their ideas for pennies on the dollar or having their names erased from the history books by male business partners.
Where to Go From Here
Understanding what have women invented isn't just a history lesson; it's a reminder that half the population’s brainpower was sidelined for centuries. Imagine where we’d be if that hadn’t happened.
If you're interested in supporting modern female-led innovation, there are a few things you can do right now:
- Audit your purchases: Look at the "About Us" pages of the tech or household brands you use. Seek out companies founded by women, like Canva (Melanie Perkins) or Bumble (Whitney Wolfe Herd).
- Support STEM programs for girls: Organizations like Girls Who Code or Black Girls Code are specifically designed to close the gender gap in the next generation of inventors.
- Read the original patents: If you're a history nerd, sites like Google Patents allow you to look up the original filings by women like Margaret Knight or Hedy Lamarr. Seeing the technical drawings is a great way to appreciate the raw engineering talent involved.
- Check the Smithsonian’s Lemelson Center: They have an incredible digital archive specifically focused on the history of American invention, including a massive section on female pioneers that goes way beyond the "textbook" examples.
Invention is about seeing a gap in the world and filling it. Whether it was Grace Hopper creating the first compiler for a computer or Tabitha Babbitt (supposedly) inventing the circular saw after watching men struggle with a pit saw, women have always been building the future. We’re just finally starting to give them the credit for it.