Essential things that were actually invented by women

In the seclusion of the kitchen, the driver’s seat, or the workshop, women have consistently transformed their frustration into ingenuity. While these inventions may not have been groundbreaking or world-changing devices, they have been the unsung heroes of washing dishes, tying shoelaces, or driving at night. Most of these inventions have been so intuitive that no one ever wondered who came up with the idea. This photostory is a journey through eight such inventions that have been rooted in women’s ingenuity and perseverance. By humanising the women and their stories, which have been documented in museum records and engineering history books, we can understand how women have been able to transcend their ordinary selves to become the epitome of ingenuity.

In 1908, German housewife Melitta Bentz was fed up with the bitter, muddy taste of coffee and the nuisance of paper filters that fell apart. She punched a hole in a brass pot, filled it with blotting paper from her son’s school, and added coffee. The result was a cleaner, smoother cup. She patented the idea and founded the company that still bears her name. In design history case studies of kitchen gadgets, Melitta Bentz’s contribution is used as a classic case of user-centric design, transforming a household nuisance into a product for the masses. Today, Melitta’s simple paper and funnel design is part of the design museum archives as a revolution in everyday taste.
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During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, various women contributed to absorbent materials and pads. Historical health research indicates that women such as Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner and other earlier innovators designed better pads for menstrual protection, including patents for closures, materials, and shapes that made them more hygienic and comfortable. Monographs on feminist medical history emphasise that these inventions were groundbreaking for women because they allowed them more freedom and safety in their daily lives, although their names were not always featured in popular advertising. Today, these patents are seen as part of the wider history of women’s health and mobility.
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For instance, the quality of sound produced by early telephones was poor. There were many engineers who worked on the earpieces and receivers of the telephone. The patent catalogue shows that women filed for inventions that were better sounding and more comfortable to use. The museum-based exhibits on the history of communication technology show that these inventions improved the user experience and made the telephone a household appliance. The engineering history papers show that such “small but vital” components of the telephone's history are commonly overlooked.
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In the 1840s, Ada Lovelace worked on translating and annotating Charles Babbage’s writings on his machine, the Analytical Engine. In doing so, she developed what computer historians today recognise as the first algorithm ever, meant to be executed by a machine. She was the first to conceive of loops, or repeating operations, which are a fundamental part of computer programming. In a National Institute of Standard and Technology report on the early days of computing, scholars have explicitly acknowledged Lovelace’s contribution to laying the groundwork for loops and conditional operations in computer programming. In current engineering and computer science education projects, Lovelace’s notebooks have been used to demonstrate the importance of women in the development of computer logic.
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Mary Anderson went to New York in 1903 and saw that the drivers of the streetcars had to open the windows to clear the windscreen of rain. This led her to draw a diagram of a “window cleaning device” that had a rubber blade and a lever inside the cabin. Mary patented the device in 1903, and studies of the history of cars mention Mary as the inventor of the first windscreen wiper. Commentaries published in journals on the history of transportation highlight the fact that the idea was developed further to the electric wipers used on cars, trains, and aeroplanes.
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In the early 19th century, a woman named Tabitha Babbitt, a crafts worker for the Shakers, observed men sawing logs with pit saws and saw the waste of motion involved. She developed the idea of a circular blade to be used for a rotating saw. This greatly sped up the process. Harvard Historical Society has given her credit for the basic idea of a rotating saw, although other studies on the history of patents point out that she did not succeed in obtaining adequate legal protection for her work. Her case is now part of the curriculum for museum-based studies on the history of women inventors.
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Though the auto-signal arm was popular, the history of auto indicators was developed through several women's innovations. Patent law and transportation history surveys have documented how women in the early 20th century developed levers, lights, and arrows to make driving safer. According to National Women’s History Museum on the history of auto indicators and vehicle safety systems, it is believed that vehicle safety systems that have been accredited to male engineers have been developed through the ingenuity of both female and male engineers.
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American social host Josephine Cochrane was fed up with her fine china getting chipped and broken during hand-washing in the late 19th century. In 1886, Cochrane designed and patented her mechanical ‘dish-washing machine,’ which featured a rack and water jets. She went on to provide her invention to hotels and restaurants. As per the National Inventors Hall of Fame, Cochrane is listed in significant histories on engineering and women in inventions, where she is credited as a pioneering inventor who made a problem in her home into a new home appliance. More recent histories of industrial history discuss how Cochrane’s company’s designs eventually became the automatic dishwashers found in many homes.
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