11 Inventions You Didn’t Know Women Had A Hand In Making

Updated: March 2023

Even though the history of women inventors is just as long as men’s, the innovative work of women is often left out of the picture (especially when men take credit for it). So we’re putting the spotlight on these spectacular women -- you may not know their names (yet), but you definitely know their contributions. Read on to hear more about the women who used science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) to make our lives that much easier.

1. Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth - Hedy Lamarr

A lot of people only knew Hedy Lamarr as a film actress (one so beautiful that she allegedly inspired the character of Snow White....nbd). But she was also a longtime inventor who loved to tinker and innovate. When World War II came around, Lamarr wanted to help however she could, so she and a partner developed “frequency hopping” technology to guide missiles. It paved the way for wireless communication technology like Wi-Fi, GPS, and Bluetooth.

2. Windshield Wipers - Mary Anderson

The idea for this invention came to Mary Anderson while stuck in traffic, which is more productive than what we usually do while stuck in traffic (listen to podcasts and suffer). She was visiting New York City in 1902, and there were delays each time her streetcar driver had to get out and manually clear the snow on the windshield. Anderson sketched out the design of an automated windshield wiper and earned a patent for it a year later.

3. Home Security Systems - Marie Van Brittan Brown

Frustrated with the high crime rate and slow police response in her Queens neighborhood, Marie Van Brittan Brown took home security into her own hands. In 1966, she invented a video and audio security system, with the ability to unlock doors, speak through a microphone, and call for help remotely. It laid the foundation for systems we still use today, so, in a way, we have her to thank for those cute video-doorbell clips of kids and dogs.

4. Kevlar - Stephanie Kwolek

Although Stephanie Kwolek was a trained chemist, from a young age she had an interest in fashion design, fabrics, and sewing. She brought her two passions together in 1965 while researching fibers under extreme conditions. There she discovered the strength of certain molecular chains at low temperature, which lead to the creation of bulletproof Kevlar material.

5. Telecommunications Devices - Shirley Ann Jackson

Shirley Ann Jackson was the first Black woman to earn a doctorate from MIT, and her research in the 1970s made breakthroughs in telecommunications. Because of Jackson’s discoveries, inventions like caller ID, fiber optic cables, and portable fax became possible.

6. Aquariums - Jeanne Villepreux-Power

At the time of Jeanne Villepreux-Power’s research, the hot topic in marine biology was about where paper nautiluses got their shells. To get to the bottom of it, Villepreux-Power created the first glass aquarium in 1832 so she could study them in a controlled environment (for those wondering, it turns out nautiluses grow their own shells!). Her invention earned her the title of "the mother of aquariophily," but we wonder if she anticipated that this is what it would one day be used for.

7. Treatments for Malaria - Asima Chatterjee

In 1944, Asima Chatterjee became the first woman to earn a doctorate in science from any Indian university. Her area of interest was mostly in the study of medicinal plants and organic chemistry. With rudimentary tools of the time, Chatterjee extracted and researched the active chemicals that made the plants curative -- which is how she discovered drugs used to treat malaria and epilepsy.

8. Automatic Dishwashers - Josephine Cochrane

Technically, two patents for dishwashers existed before Josephine Cochrane’s in 1886, but both were hand-turned and not actually very good at washing dishes. She substituted scrubbers for water pressure and invented the first automatic dishwasher, as we know it today. She went on to open a production factory that later became KitchenAid, and on behalf of everyone who has ever had to touch a wet piece of food on a dirty dish, we thank her.

9. Computer Programming - Grace Hopper

Known as “Amazing Grace” by her colleagues, Rear Admiral Grace Hopper was a pioneering computer operator for the US Navy. She worked on the Mark I, one of the earliest computers, programming and repairing it. Hopper went on to develop the world’s first compiler, which translated code and made it possible to program for multiple computers. This eventually evolved into one of the first programming languages.

10. Coffee Filters - Melitta Bentz

This invention was developed in the pursuit of a perfect cup of coffee, and we really can’t blame her for it. Melitta Benz was tired of coffee grounds getting into her cup each morning, so she took some blotting paper from her son’s notebook and used it as the first coffee filter. She got a patent for it in 1908 and revolutionized the way we drink our coffee.

11. Space Station Power System - Olga González-Sanabria

Born in Puerto Rico, Olga González-Sanabria immigrated to the US and began working for NASA in 1979. She’s best known for inventing long-life nickel hydrogen batteries, which can operate for over fifteen years. Because of their energy density and long lifespan, these batteries are instrumental to the International Space Station power system.