She Was Never Just One Thing: Part I

The next time a wild idea such as perming your eyelashes or injecting botulinum toxin into your crow’s feet or lip lines, think about this for a second:

Whose beauty standards are you living by?

Who has monetized your insecurities?

Who has told you that you’re not enough?

When will we celebrate women not for how they look, but for what they build, what they birth, what they burn through to still be standing?

We don’t hold up the women who invented, who resisted, who defied.

We hold up the ones who were curated, palatable enough to decorate patriarchy’s mantle.

Not too loud.

Not too dark.

Not too old.

Not too much.

But the truth?

There have always been women who broke the rules… even when no one read their names aloud.

One blog post will never be enough. But it can be a torch. A beginning. A crack in the surface of silence.

So be it. The call has been answered, not one article but a series of articles holding up the women who stood below men and yet were much larger than life.

• The Inventors
• The Strategists
• The Warriors
• The Scientists
• The Midwives & Healers
• The Poets & Prophets
• The Ones History Feared Too Much to Name

The Inventors

Martha Jones

Martha Jones was the first black woman to receive a US patent and yet there’s still so little that is known about her. Her name, is absent from textbooks and, she has such a limited presence online. Her invention was for an improved cornhusker and sheller. It was 1868, a radical time, a time of racial and gender discrimination, and her invention challenged the norms, and demonstrated the ingenuity of women.

Explore the limited digital footprint of her existence by visiting here.

Hedy Lamarr

Hedy Lamarr , yes that Hedy Lamarr. Beauty queen, film star and inventor. Hollywood idolized her beauty but there’s so much more to her story. She tinkered and she struggled, she was an addict and she discovered, she invented. She was not only one thing. Hedy patented her idea of frequency hopping which is the foundation of WiFi, among other things. According to the Smithsonian Institute, she shared her concept for using “frequency hopping” with the U.S. Navy and codeveloped a patent with Antheil 1941. Today, her innovation helped make possible a wide range of wireless communications technologies, including WiFi , GPS, and Bluetooth.

Visit here to read about her legacy.

Tabitha Babbitt

A long, long time ago(maybe not so long ago), the 19th century, a Shaker woman invented the circular saw…yes, the one still used in woodshops everywhere. As a Shaker, she did not patent her inventions, as the community believed in sharing knowledge and innovation for the benefit of all. What a beautiful concept. Yet her name was overlooked for centuries, despite her contribution to the industrial revolution. While, some of it might have been due to her Shaker beliefs, a lot of it was due to the general tendency at the time well, not just at that time but the tendency to devalue women that has been an intricate part of our world since the beginning of time.

Journey into her story: Discover her lasting impact.

Shirley Jackson

Let’s talk about Dr. Jackson. She opened a path for future generations of women and minorities in science and technology. She earn a doctorate in physics from MIT. The first African American to do so. She was the theoretical physicist whose research enabled caller ID, touch-tone phones, and fiber-optic cables.

Experience the difference she made..Learn about her life’s work here.

Marion Donovan

Marion Donovan’s story is steeped in the ordinary. The power of observation that brought about inventions with profound and lasting impact on modern life. She invented the first waterproof disposable diaper using a shower curtain. Originally laughed at by male execs, she went on to patent her design—and change the lives of every parent after her.

Uncover more about her journey

Sarah Boone

An African-American woman who improved the ironing board design in 1892, making it more effective for sleeves and curves. Boone learn to read later in life, despite it being illegal to teach African-Americans to read during her time. This woman is an example of the countless women whose historical importance has been obscured.

Here, the few threads of her story remain.

Alice H. Parker

Imagine getting a patent as a Black woman in the early 20th century. There was systemic discrimination and limited opportunities faced by women of color at the time, and that was a remarkable achievement. Her achievement came before the Civil Rights Movement and the Women’s Liberation Movement. In 1919, she patented the design for a gas-powered central heating system. A Black woman from New Jersey, born before women could vote. Her story is very intriguing because there’s so little known about her that her invention has been mistakenly or misattributed to others.

Delve into the few surviving fragments of her story.

Marie Van Brittan Brown

Invented the first home security system in 1966. Her design included cameras, peepholes, and even an alarm trigger. Marie and Albert Brown, her husband, filed for a patent for their invention in 1966, and it was granted in 1969. Her work gained attention, including an interview with The New York Times and an award from the National Scientists Committee.

Uncover the details of her life here.

Josephine Cochrane

She was tired of doing dishes, well that may or may not be true. However, she did invent the first commercially successful dishwasher in 1886. She said, “If nobody else is going to invent it, I’ll do it myself. Cochrane’s company was eventually acquired by KitchenAid, which introduced a popular home dishwasher based on her design in 1949.”

Learn about her inspiring path here.

This is not a complete list. It never will be. Let us build a list and scatter it to the corners of the internet.
Let us be many things..let us not be erased.