by Wren Pyle, Sophomore
From household items you use every day to life-saving inventions, women are the masterminds behind those creations. March is women’s history month, yet how many of you know the inventions behind many of our devices today? Women have invented chemotherapy, discovered that carbon dioxide and water vapor create greenhouse gases, invented windshield wipers, dishwashers, and much more.
Every day you use items such as windshield wipers or a dishwasher, yet were you aware of the women who created these? Without windshield wipers, nobody would be able to drive in a car safely during rain, except that, thanks to Mary Anderson, we are able to. Not only are you kept safe in the car during a storm, but your dishes do not have to be washed by hand. With a dishwasher, you do not need to waste your time handwashing every dish. Josephine Cochrane developed the first dishwasher in 1887, so now washing dishes is as easy as placing dishes in the machine. Not only have women discovered your everyday household devices, but groundbreaking advances in science. Methotrexate became the backbone of chemotherapy, which completely turned the tables for fighting off cancer. This major discovery significantly changed patients’ life expectancy with cancer. Chemotherapy is not the stopping point of women’s discoveries in the science field. A large contributor to global warming, the mixture of carbon dioxide and water vapor, creating greenhouse gases, was discovered by Eunice Foote.
March was designated as Women’s History Month in 1987. It started as a week in Santa Rosa, California, in 1978, which was later recognized nationally. The month was created to recognize the exclusion of women’s contributions to our society. When establishing women’s history month, this was President Jimmy Carter’s message to the U.S, “From the first settlers who came to our shores, from the first American Indian families who befriended them, men and women have worked together to build this nation. Too often, the women were unsung, and sometimes their contributions went unnoticed. But the achievements, leadership, courage, strength, and love of the women who built America were as vital as those of the men whose names we know so well.”
Women have been the masterminds behind life-changing inventions yet our society has failed to give them the correct recognition until the establishment of women’s national history month in 1987. Even this month, women should be credited every day for the inventions they have made and the progress they have made in our lives. Without these inventions, you would not be able to drive in the rain or wash dishes promptly! Women have invented so many things, yet we go on with our daily lives forgetting that. This month, take a minute to research a woman and what she has contributed to your day-to-day life, or something in the bigger picture.
Sources:
First Presidential Message, 1980 – National Women’s History Alliance
The story of Dr Jane C Wright, pioneer of blood cancer research
Happy 200th birthday to Eunice Foote, hidden climate science pioneer
Leave a Reply