Women inventors are behind a wide range of key innovations, from Kevlar to dishwashers to better life rafts.
1. Life Raft
In the early 1880s, when a new wave of European immigrants were sailing to the United States, a Philadelphia inventor named Maria E. Beasley designed an improved life raft. Unlike the flat life rafts of the 1870s, Beasley’s raft had guard rails to help keep people inside during emergencies when they had to abandon ship.
In addition to the life raft, she also invented a foot warmer, a stream generator and a barrel-hooping machine, receiving a total of 15 U.S. patents and at least two in Great Britain during her life.
2. Fold-Out Bed
In 1885, a Chicago inventor and furniture store owner named Sarah E. Goode received a patent for her “Cabinet-Bed.” The new piece of furniture was a desk that folded out into a bed, allowing the user to save space in a tiny apartment.
Goode’s invention predated the 20th century’s pull-down Murphy beds and pull-out sofas.
3. Dishwasher
Josephine G. Cochran was a wealthy socialite in Shelbyville, Illinois when she got the idea to invent a dishwasher. Cochrane employed servants to perform housework in her mansion, but started washing her fine china herself when she discovered some of the servants had accidentally chipped them. Cochrane found her brief exposure to housework unpleasant, and resolved to build a machine that could wash the dishes for her.
4. Car Heater
The first person to patent an automobile heater was Margaret A. Wilcox, an engineer in Chicago. Wilcox’s 1893 design used heat from the car’s engine to keep drivers and passengers warm during trips. Later engineers improved upon the idea by making the heat easier to regulate.
5. Feeding Tube
Bessie Virginia Blount, also known as Bessie Blount Griffin, was an American nurse, physical therapist, inventor, handwriting expert.
In 1940 she taught veterans of World War II with amputations to read and write with their teeth and feet. It was during this work that Bount invented a device that her patients could use to feed themselves.
6. Kevlar
Stephanie L. Kwolek was a chemist who created synthetic fibers while working at DuPont’s Pioneering Research Laboratory in Wilmington, Delaware. The most famous one she created was Kevlar—a strong, lightweight and heat-resistant synthetic fiber.
Kevlar is used in bulletproof vests and other protective equipment.
7. Home Security System
Marie Van Brittan Brown got the idea for the security system because she and her husband worked long hours as an electronics technician, and she often found herself coming home to their apartment and being by herself late at night.
The system that Brown invented involved a sliding camera that could capture images through four different peepholes in her door, TV monitors to display the camera images and two-way microphones that allowed her to talk with anyone outside her door. There was also a remote to unlock the door from a distance and a button to alert police or security.
8. Cataract Treatment
Patricia E. Bath was the first Black American to complete a residency in ophthalmology and the first Black female doctor to patent a medical device in the United States. The device she invented was the Laserphaco Probe, which removed cataracts—cloudy blemishes in the eye that can lead to vision loss.
9. Stem Cell Isolation
While working in Palo Alto in 1991, Asian American scientist Ann Tsukamoto was part of the team that patented the first method of isolating blood-forming stem cells in 1991. Tsukamoto holds a total of 12 U.S. patents for her stem cell research, which has helped with the development of cancer treatments.
