Some of the inventions that have made our lives easier and are essential in our daily life, such as the electronic book, the ‘wifi’, the windshield wiper, the fire escape, the popular game Monopoly or the cornea recognition system, were created by women .
Brilliant minds whose achievements and discoveries have saved lives, changed science and crept into our everyday lives.
Although their inventions went down in history, many of these inventors remained hidden because they were women.
This explains the Spanish disseminator Isabel Pascual Ruiz de Alegría, who has been giving conferences on art, design and science with a gender perspective since 2019 through the Curabitur project.
One of these cycles is led by female inventors, “representative and curious” women who have dedicated their lives to advancing science and society.
“They have been hidden as women in all areas, but this is a field that is even less visible,” explains Pascual of these pioneers.
Among them are well-known figures such as the Greek philosopher Hypatia of Alexandria, who made important contributions to science in mathematics and astronomy; or the mathematician Ada Lovelace (1815-1852), the first computer programmer.
Or even the scientist Marie Curie (1867-1934), Nobel Prize in physics in 1903 for her research on radiation, shared with Henri Becquerel, and in chemistry in 1911 for her work on polonium and radium, this time in solitary.
But many other scientists were not as visible. This is the case of the 12th-century Italian physician Trotula de Salerno, considered the first gynecologist in history for her revolutionary ideas in gynecology and obstetrics, who argued that infertility problems can also come from men and not just from men. women, as was previously believed.
Or the American Tabitha Babbitt (1779-1853), to whom the invention of the first circular saw is attributed.
His compatriot Martha Coston (1826-1904) in turn invented maritime light signals, which saved many lives by avoiding ship collisions.
The popular monopoly is also due to a woman. Particularly for the American writer and businesswoman Elizabeth Magie Phillips (1866-1948), who in 1902 created The Landlord’s Game, the predecessor of the current version of the board game.
Such everyday objects as the windshield wiper or the fire escape were invented by women. The first by Mary Anderson (USA), who made it possible to drive trains, trams and cars with her invention.
And Anna Connelli (USA) made buildings safer by inventing the outdoor fire escape in 1887, which is still part of the landscape of many cities today.
For her part, chemist and engineer Mary Engle Pennington was the first female laboratory chief of the United States Food and Drug Administration and the inventor of the refrigeration and food preservation system.
Other creations that have been fully incorporated into daily practice are the typex, made by the American typist Bette Nesmith Graham; the coffee filter, invented in 1908 by the German Melitta Bentz; or Kevlar, a material that is up to five times stronger than the steel used in body armor, the invention of Polish-American chemist Stephanie Kwolek.
But to whom we owe today’s way of life undoubtedly is the Austrian actress and inventor Hedy Lamarr, forerunner of WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS, thanks to her frequency hopping technology.
The inventions list also includes creations by Spanish women, including the researcher and professor at the Complutense University of Madrid Celia Sánchez-Ramos Roda, the creator of the cornea recognition system, or Pilar Mateo, the inventor of an insecticidal dye against diseases such as Chagas’ disease .