What do dishwashers, bullet-proof fiber, ice cream freezers and typewriter correction fluid have in common? They were all invented by women.
Women have been discovering, innovating and inventing throughout history, and it is time to give them the credit they deserve, says author Ethlie Ann Vare. Her 1988 book Mothers of Invention was the first book in America on women inventors, and she has published two more on the subject since.For the most part, the women responsible for discoveries that affect science, technology and everyday living largely have been forgotten, Vare said in a recent Ask America webchat, sponsored by the State Department. “Chemistry majors [in college] may know about Stephanie Kwolek, who invented Kevlar” -- a material used in body armor such as bullet-proof vests and helmets -- “but the elementary school texts keep going back to default, that inventors are all men. That’s why I keep writing my books.”
“To encourage women and girls to continue seeking answers to the many problems that face us,” Vare added, “it’s vital we demonstrate that women do invent. They always have, and always will.” There are at least 250,000 patents by women in the United States, she said.
In addition to inventions for the home, such as the drip coffee maker and the Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner, “women hold the patents for new medicines and medical instruments treating everything from cancer to cataracts,” Vare said. In the past two decades, “the majority of inventions by women have been biomedical.” For example, Gertrude Elion’s research led to the first immunosuppressive agent, the first treatment for leukemia and a drug to fight herpes. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine in 1988.
