After celebrating International Women’s day last week, I had time to reflect on the women in my life who inspire me. Upon reflection, it got me thinking about women who have helped shaped the modern world in some form; women who should be celebrated and remembered for their innovative accomplishments. Then I realized that I was unable to name any of those women. I do not remember learning about women who have impacted the modern world in any of my high school history classes. There was never any discussion about powerful women in everyday life, decades, or even centuries ago. It made me think women didn’t do anything significant enough to be written about? But I know that as an adult, I was wrong.
The woman I have selected today are merely the tip of the iceberg for women who have done extraordinary things and whose names should not be forgotten. Especially those who have set the foundation for modern society. The three women I have decided to share with you today deserve full credit for shaping the modern world.
I hope after reading this article it encourages you when you take a moment to discover women who have been left out of our history books.
- Marie Van Brittan Brown (Modern Security System)
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Marie Van Brittian Brown was the one to create the first home security system (but also credited with the first closed circuit television). Her security system was made up of peepholes, a camera, monitors, and a two-way microphone, with an alarm button that could be pressed to contact the police. This invention was the foundation for every security system that exists today.
- Maria Telkes (Solar Power)
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Maria Telkes was a biophysicist and solar energy pioneer of the 20th century who is a holder of more than 25 patents and has been inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. She is recognized as of the pioneers in the field of solar energy. During World War I she invented a solar distiller that was responsible for vaporizing seawater and then re-condensed into drinkable water. Not only was she able to turn seawater (which is undrinkable) into drinkable water, but the United States Military considered her solar still (a portable water filtration system) so important that it was put on boats for soldiers whose ships got destroyed. After World War I, Maria Telkes when on to further research and she created a type of solar heating system and heating ovens all with the use of solar power.
- Alice H Parker (Gas Furnace)
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Alice. H. Parker was an African American woman who patented the system of central heating using gas. In the 1920s Alice H. Parker felt that her fireplace was not efficient enough in warming her home during the cold winters. Not much is known about Alice H. Parkers life, but she opened the door for many other women of her generation particularly because the filing of her patent antedates both the Civil Rights Movement and the Women’s Liberation Movement.
Sources:
Hill, Rebecca.“Marie Can Brittan Brown (1922 – 1999). Black Past, 11 April, 2016.
https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/brown-marie-van-britt…
Weber, Erika. “Alice H. Parker ( 1895-?)”. Blackpast, 1 April, 2018.
https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/parker-alice-h-1895/
Tietjen, Jill S. “Spotlight: Maria Telkes, Biophysicist & Inventor”. Altogether, 15 March, 2019.
https://alltogether.swe.org/2019/03/maria-telkes-biophysicist-inventor/