Women have always been more than just pretty faces; like any other group, women are capable of great things and can be credited for the invention of things we all use in our everyday lives. Unfortunately, history can be altered or hidden to keep us from realizing or learning about the great accomplishments of women in history. Although progress is being made in recent years, we’ve still got a long way to go to recognize women for all of their achievements and contributions. Since March is Women’s History Month, I’d like to shine the spotlight on 5 inventions that are essential to today’s daily life and exist thanks to some remarkably innovative women of the past.
1. Monopoly
Oh yes, everyone’s favorite game exists thanks to a woman named Elizabeth J. Magie Phillips. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, she was inspired by the anti-monopolist views of politician and economist Henry George, who argued that taxes on land values would shift the tax burden to rich landlords, and she decided to create a game as a way of explaining George’s economic theories to others. Phillips patented the original version of her game, which she called “The Landlord’s Game.” The game’s starting point featured a global map with the phrase “Labor Upon Mother Earth Produces Wages” and the iconic jail square was a property owned by a fictional Lord Blueblood with the phrase “No Trespassing Go to Jail.”
The game changed over time of course, but interestingly enough, Phillips married a businessman named Albert Phillips and used her new surname on the 1924 patent instead (in her 1904 patent, she had used her maiden name Magie). Something to note: You may find that when the creators of Monopoly, the Parker Brothers, started selling the game in 1936, they credited the game’s invention to a salesman named Charles Darrow. Unfortunately, this could be in part because Phillips reported selling her board game patent rights to the Parker Brothers just a year before. Thankfully, Phillips is gaining more recognition in recent years, so next time you bust out a Monopoly game board, don’t forget the name Elizabeth J. Mage Phillips!
2. Windshield Wipers
Rain, snow, or shine, the creation of windshield wipers was so revolutionary that its female inventor, Mary Anderson, has her own page on the National Inventors’ Hall of Fame website. It’s said that in the 1900s Anderson got the inspiration for the invention after watching countless drivers at the time struggle with rainy or snow weather; oftentimes, drivers would have to open their windows or stop the car altogether just to clear their windows enough to see what was ahead of them. In 1903, Anderson earned a patent and proved her invention to be the first effective windshield wipers, and it eventually got developed for automotive use. Without Mary Anderson, who knows how else we would get through driving in tough weather!
3. Portable Fax, Caller ID, and Call Waiting.
Shirley Ann Jackson was an innovator who created caller ID, among other things. Interesting fact: She was one of the first two African-American women to receive a doctorate in physics in the U.S. and was the first African-American woman to receive a doctorate from MIT. No wonder she’s got her own page on the National Women’s Hall of Fame website! Jackson’s background in psychics led her to conduct scientific research that laid the foundation for the invention of the portable fax, along with the technology behind caller ID and call waiting. Anytime that “Spam Risk” notification pops up on your caller ID, you can thank Shirley Ann Jackson for that!
4. Wireless Transmission Technology (WiFi, GPS, BlueTooth)
Austrian-American actress Hedy Lamarr was also an inventor who contributed to the technology that laid the foundation for the invention of today’s WiFi, GPS, and BlueTooth communication systems. Having been married for a time to a munitions expert during WWII, Lamarr gathered some knowledge of munitions and other weaponry. She eventually met another inventor named George Antheil and the two began to brainstorm on how to combat the Axis Powers (Germany, Italy, and Japan). Lamarr and Antheil eventually created a new communication system for the purpose of guiding torpedoes to their intended targets in war, which used “frequency hopping” among radio waves. Although they were awarded a U.S. patent for the system in 1942, the Navy refused to implement it and Lamarr remained unrecognized for her innovative talents for a period of time. Eventually, Lamarr became the first woman to receive the Invention Convention’s Bulbie Gnass Spirit of Achievement Award and was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2014, though she passed away in 2000. Hedy Lamarr has been dubbed by some as “The Mother of WiFi,” so the next time you use WiFi, GPS, or BlueTooth, be sure to remember her!
5. Computers
You read that right; we have a woman to thank for her contribution to the computer’s existence. In 1944, Grace Hopper was assigned to Harvard University’s Bureau of Ordnance Computation Project. There she worked on Mark I, the first large-scale computer, and wrote the first computer manual ever, titled A Manual of Operation for the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (1946), made especially for Mark I. Hopper even coined the term “bug” in reference to computer failures. So next time you grab your laptop or take a seat at your computer, it’s all thanks to Grace Hopper’s work!
Whether they directly created an invention or contributed to the groundwork that would eventually become an invention we use today, it’s important to keep in mind that behind every innovation there is a brilliant mind–and, in the cases listed above, a brilliant woman. So, the next time you use any of these inventions, don’t forget to thank the women behind them!