Women have always been changing the world with incredible innovations that have saved lives, advanced science, and made life easier. Unfortunately, far too often, men have taken credit for their work, dismissed their discoveries, or overlooked their credit today, leaving these women’s stories unsung.
In honor of Women’s History Month, this article covers many women who have made phenomenal contributions you may not know about!
- Hedy Lamarr (1914-2000)
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This spectacular woman was an Austrian-American actress and a genius. From a young age, Lamarr was able to take apart and reassemble small machines, like her music box, and was involved in the arts, such as music and dance.
At 16, she became an actress, putting her smarts on the back burner. However, during World War II, she pioneered communication systems that used “frequency hopping,” which is the basis of Wi-Fi, GPS, and Bluetooth. Three years before her death, she finally received an award for it.
- Freddie Oversteegen (1925-2018)
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Freddie, Truus Oversteegen, and Hannie Schaft were a trio of teenage assassins during WWII. The Haarlem Resistance Group asked the Oversteegen sisters to join the organization as children, not realizing they were about to become assassins, bomb railways, help in hospitals, and smuggle out Jewish children in concentration camps.
They used their youth and charm to their advantage. Truus seduced an SS officer to the woods, where a resistance member shot him. Both sisters lived until they were 92 years old, but unfortunately Hannie was captured and executed, with her last words reportedly being, “I’m a better shot.”
- Maria Anna Mozart (1751-1829)
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We’ve all heard of her brother, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the musician and composer. But what if I told you Maria Anna was much more talented than her brother?
Maria was a child prodigy and toured playing and composing music. She played for aristocrats in major European capitals, and her brother, in awe, soaked up some of her talent as he grew up.
At 18, she was pressured to marry to secure her economic status, leaving her music world behind. She played casually at home over the years and finally taught piano lessons for fun in the 1800s.
- Claudette Colvin (1939-present)
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Rosa Parks wasn’t the first Black woman to refuse to get up from her bus seat. Surprising, right?
At 15, Colvin refused to get up from her seat. All the white seats were filled in, leaving one white girl standing. The bus driver called for Colvin’s row to move, but Colvin was the only one who remained in her seat. The white woman refused to sit in the same row because it meant they were equal.
Two cops dragged her off the bus and arrested her, charging her with three crimes (disturbing peace, not following segregation laws, and assaulting officers). Civil rights activists were furious; Rosa Parks began to fundraise her case, encouraged Colvin to become more active in the NAACP youth council, and stayed in touch with her after the trial.
- Ada Lovelace (1815-1852)
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Did you know the first computer programmer was a woman from the 1800s? Ada Gordon was the daughter of romantic poet Lord Byron and mathematician Anabella Milbanke. After her parents split, her mother put her under a strict mathematics, science, and logic curriculum to prevent her from getting too creative and poetic like her father.
Around the age of 12, she used mathematics to design flying machines. After marrying at 19, making her Ada King, Countess of Lovelace, her mentor Mary Sommerville introduced her to Professor Charles Babbage.
In 1842, after hearing about Babbage’s machine idea, she wrote an article that contained early computer programs, observations, and potential uses for this machine. It included manipulation of symbols and creation of music. Her program for the machine was the most detailed and complete, so it was published. A century later, Alan Turing used her work to create the first computer.
Other Remarkable Women
There are so many incredible stories of women with unsung stories, so I urge you to explore the following women!
Marion Donovan invented waterproof diapers. She made, marketed, and patented it before selling it for $1 million. She also made and patented the DentaLOOP and was one of three women to graduate from Yale in 1958.
Maria Tallchief was the first American and Native American prima ballerina. She refused to change her last name to preserve her identity, became the first American to dance at the Paris Opera Ballet and Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, starred as the original Sugar Plum Fairy, opened the Chicago City Ballet, and advocated for Native Americans.
Vera Rubin discovered black matter. Her supervisor took credit and earned a Nobel Prize. To this day, Rubin hasn’t received a Nobel Prize despite her well-known contributions to astronomy, but she’s never complained and is selflessly happy that advancements in the area have been made.
Ever wonder who invented bras? That was Caresse Crosby, who patented the first brasserie and founded a printing press, a world peace organization, and the Surrealist Ball in 1935 in New York City. She was friends with Salvador Dali and Earnest Hemingway, among other incredible figures, and lived a lavish and interesting life.
ENIAC programmers Jean Bartik, Kathleen Antonelli, Marlyn Meltzer, Betty Holberton, Frances Spence, and Ruth Teitelbaum were six women who programmed a computer to take down artillery trajectories in seconds. Martha Coston created and patented the Coston device, a flare system she sold to the U.S. Navy and continues to help save lives.
Mary Anning was a paleontologist who discovered her first ancient species at 12 and later discovered the first ichthyosaurus. Nellie Bly traveled worldwide in a record-breaking 72 days and often wrote exposés of factories and mental institutions. Thanks to Eunice Foote, we know about greenhouse gases.
We can also thank the hair straightener (1893), windshield wipers (1903), the original monopoly (1903), and flat-bottomed brown paper bags (1871) to Ada Harris, Mary Anderson, Elizabeth Maggie Phillips, and Margaret Knight, respectively.
These women are phenomenal and deserve more recognition. It’s truly inspiring to see what education, advocacy, curiosity, and resilience can bring out in women. I hope you look into these ladies’ stories and remember them this Women’s History Month!
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