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15 Most Famous Female Inventors Of All Time

Throughout history, inventors have shaped the world with their groundbreaking creations, but all too often, the contributions of female inventors have been overlooked or forgotten. This, however, doesn’t mean that women have not been at the center stage of innovation, because indeed they have. From computer programming pioneers to scientific luminaries and everyday innovators, these remarkable women have defied societal norms, challenged conventions, and shattered barriers to make their mark in the world of invention.

Their outstanding achievements bear testament that women have made significant contributions to many industries. In this article, we highlight 15 women who have left a mark on the realm of invention, revolutionizing industries and transforming daily life with their ingenious creations. These women serve as a great inspiration for future generations of inventors. 

1. Grace Hopper

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Grace Hopper was an American computer scientist, mathematician, and United States Navy rear admiral. One of the first programmers of the Harvard Mark I computer, she was a pioneer of computer programming who invented one of the first linkers. 

Hopper was the first to devise the theory of machine-independent programming languages, and the FLOW-MATIC programming language she created using this theory was later extended to create COBOL, an early high-level programming language still in use today.  Read more Interesting Facts about Grace Hopper. 

2. Marie Curie

Marie was a Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first person to win a Nobel Prize twice, and the only person to win a Nobel Prize in two scientific fields.

She developed a portable radiography unit called the Petite Curie, which provided X-ray services during World War I, saving countless lives on the battlefield. Click here to read all about French Physicist Marie Curie. 

3. Evelyn Berezin 

Evelyn was an American computer designer of the first computer-driven word processor. She also worked on computer-controlled systems for airline reservations.  She is the one responsible for creating the first-word processor in the world in 1971. Berezin also established Redactron, her very own company, to launch her unique inventions into the market. 

4. Flossie Wong-Staal

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Flossie was a Chinese-American virologist and molecular biologist. She was the first scientist to clone HIV and determine the function of its genes, which was a major step in proving that HIV is the cause of AIDS. 

From 1990 to 2002, she held the Florence Riford Chair in AIDS Research at the University of California, San Diego. She was co-founder and, after retiring from UCSD, she became the chief scientific officer of Immusol, which was renamed iTherX Pharmaceuticals in 2007 when it transitioned to a drug development company focused on hepatitis C and continued as chief scientific officer.

5. Giuliana Tesoro 

Giuliana Tesoro was a female Italian chemist and scientist who invented flame-retardant fibre. Tesoro made crucial advances in the field of textile processing as well as organic compounds that helped improve the performance of textiles for ordinary consumers and the efficiency of the manufacturing systems. The flame-resistant fibres are among Tesoro’s most crucial developments. She came up with ways to avoid static accumulation in synthetic fibres, and she also made enhanced permanent-press properties for textiles. 

6. Hedy Lemarr

Hedy was an Austrian-born Austro-Hungarian-American film actress and inventor. She was a film star during Hollywood’s golden age. At the beginning of World War II, she and avant-garde composer George Antheil developed a radio guidance system for Allied torpedoes that used spread spectrum and frequency hopping technology to defeat the threat of jamming by the Axis powers.

7. Stephanie Kwolek 

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Stephanie was a Polish-American chemist who is known for inventing Kevlar. Her career at the DuPont company spanned more than 40 years. She discovered the first of a family of synthetic fibres of exceptional strength and stiffness: poly-para phenylene terephthalate

8. Katharine Blodgett

Katharine was an American physicist and chemist known for her work on surface chemistry, in particular, her invention of “invisible” or non-reflective glass while working at General Electric. She was the first woman to be awarded a PhD in physics from the University of Cambridge, in 1926. 

9. Ada Lovelac

Ada was an English mathematician and writer, chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage’s proposed mechanical general-purpose computer, the Analytical Engine. She was the first to recognise that the machine had applications beyond pure calculation and to have published the first algorithm intended to be carried out by such a machine. As a result, she is often regarded as the first computer programmer.

10. Margaret Hamilton

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Margaret Hamilton is an American computer scientist, systems engineer, and business owner. She was director of the Software Engineering Division of the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory, which developed onboard flight software for NASA’s Apollo program. She later founded two software companies Higher Order Software in 1976 and Hamilton Technologies in 1986, both in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Hamilton has published more than 130 papers, proceedings, and reports, about sixty projects, and six major programs. She invented the term “software engineering”, stating “I began to use the term ‘software engineering’ to distinguish it from hardware and other kinds of engineering, yet treat each type of engineering as part of the overall systems engineering process. Read more about the most famous women in STEM. 

11. Marion Donovan

Marion was an American inventor and entrepreneur. She was one of the most prolific female inventors of her time, having received 20 patents in total for her inventions. Donovan was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2015.

Her most notable innovation is the invention of a reusable, leak-proof waterproof diaper cover in 1946 after many iterations. This led to her invention of the disposable paper diaper, which was eventually commercialized by Victor Mills, the creator of Pampers. Donovan also invented additional practical solutions to problems around the home.

12. Mary Anderson

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Mary Anderson was an American real estate developer, rancher, viticulturist, and inventor of the windshield wiper. On November 10, 1903, Anderson was granted her first patent for an automatic car window cleaning device controlled from inside the car, called the windshield wiper.

13. Mary Walton

Mary Walton was a nineteenth-century American inventor who was awarded two patents for pollution-reducing devices. In 1881, Walton created a method for reducing the environmental hazards of the smoke emitted from locomotive, industrial and residential chimneys. Her system deflected the emissions being produced by factory smokestacks into water tanks, where the pollutants were retained and later flushed into the sewer, or into other suitable channels for conducting them to a distant or any desired locality.

Mary Walton also invented a system for reducing the noise produced by the elevated railway systems that were rapidly expanding in New York City, where she lived near the Sixth Avenue Line.  Her idea of using sand to dampen sound pollution in New York was inspired by the use of sand to dampen the clanging of anvils near her home. Mary Walton was a true innovator, noticing and experiencing problems in her life and targeting that as a way to make the world a better place.

14. Nancy Johnson

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Nancy Johnson was an American inventor and entrepreneur. Johnson addressed a pain point in the ice cream industry, where the process of making ice cream was time-consuming and labour-intensive. 

Her machine made it possible to produce ice cream on a larger scale, reducing the amount of labour required and making it possible to sell ice cream to a wider audience. She created the first hand-cranked ice cream freezer in 1843. Her invention revolutionized the ice cream industry, making it easier and more efficient to produce ice cream on a large scale.

15.  Roberta Williams

Roberta is an American video game designer and writer, who co-founded Sierra On-Line with her husband, game developer Ken Williams. In 1980, her first game, Mystery House, became a modest commercial success; it is credited as the first graphic adventure game. She is also known for creating and maintaining the King’s Quest series, as well as designing the full-motion video game Phantasmagoria in 1995. Several publications have named Roberta Williams as one of the best or most influential creators in the video game industry.