Ten Important Discoveries Made by Women

25.03.2022

1. Windshield Wipers – Mary Anderson : Anderson first came up with the idea of windshield wipers while riding in a streetcar in the snow. She tried selling her device to companies after receiving the patent for it in 1903, but all of them rejected her invention. It wasn’t until the ’50s and ’60s when faster automobiles were invented that companies took to the idea. By then, Anderson’s patent had expired, and inventor Robert Kearns was wrongly credited with the idea.

   

2. Disposable Diapers – Marion Donovan : In the ’40s, new mothers had very few options for diapers. There was cloth…and that was pretty much it. The daughter of an inventor, Marion’s first patent was actually for a diaper cover. She later added buttons, eliminating the need for safety pins. Her original disposable diaper was made with shower curtains, with her final one made from nylon parachute cloth. This new method helped keep children and clothes cleaner and dryer, not to mention helping with rashes. But, of course, diaper companies at first ignored her patent.

   

3. Computer Algorithm – Ada Lovelace : In the mid-1800s, Ada Lovelace wrote the instructions for the first computer program. But mathematician and inventor Charles Babbage is often credited with the work because he invented the actual engine.

   

4. Wireless Communication – Hedy Lamarr : Hollywood actor Hedy Lamarr should actually be the person credited with the invention of wireless communication. During the second World War, Hedy worked closely with George Antheil to develop the idea of “frequency hopping,” which would have prevented the bugging of military radios. Unfortunately, the U.S. Navy ignored her patent —and later used her findings to develop new technologies. Years later, her patent was re-discovered by a researcher, which led to Lamarr receiving the Electronic Frontier Foundation Award shortly before her death in 2000.

   

5. Computer Programming Language – Dr. Grace Murray Hopper : Hopper created the first computer language compiler tools to program the Harvard Mark I computer—IBM’s computer that was often used for World War II efforts. Though it’s noted in history that John von Neumann initiated the computer’s first program, Hopper is the one who invented the codes to program it. One of the programming languages she pioneered, COBOL, is still widely used today.

   

6. Telecommunications – Shirley Jackson : Jackson, a theoretical physicist, was the first black woman to be awarded a Ph.D. from MIT, in 1973. While working at Bell Laboratories in New Jersey in the late 1970s and ’80s, she conducted breakth rough scientific research with subatomic particles that enabled others to invent the portable fax, touch-tone telephone, solar cells, fiber-optic cables, and the technology behind caller ID and call waiting.

   

7. Radioactivity – Marie Curie : Thanks to Marie Curie, it turned out you could split an atom. This was one of the major discoveries she made while studying “radioactive” elements. Curie received her first Nobel Prize for the discovery of radioactivity and her second for the discovery of polonium and radium. She was the first person to win two Nobel Prizes.

   

8. Dark Matter – Vera Rubin : Rubin is the astrophysicist who confirmed the existence of dark matter in the atmosphere. She worked with astronomer Kent Ford in the ’60s and ’70s, when they discovered the reasoning behind stars’ movement outside of the galaxy. She’s dubbed a “national treasure” but remains without a Nobel Peace Prize because, well, you can guess why.

   

9. Cure for Leprosy – Alice Ball : Not only was Ball the first woman and African American to receive a master’s degree from the University of Hawaii, she was also the first to become a chemistry professor at her alma mater. Before she allegedly died from chlorine poisoning at the young age of 24, Ball developed an injectable drug to treat leprosy from the oil of the chaulmoogra tree. For more than twenty years, it was the most effective treatment for the disease.

   

10. Stephanie Kwolek – Kevlar : Thanks to Kwolek’s invention in 1964, Kevlar has been used in hundreds of products, including bicycle tires, tennis rackets, racing sails, body armor, frying pans, musical instruments, bulletproof vests, and more. The para-aramid synthetic fiber is five times stronger than steel.