In Greek mythology, Athena is the goddess of wisdom, knowledge, and handicraft, conveying strength and prosperity through agriculture, inventions, and industry. She is credited as the inventor of the rake, plough, the yoke to harness oxen, bridle, chariot, and the art of shipbuilding and navigation.
In America, we have had our own real world Athenas since before the nation’s independence. A woman was the first American colonist to receive a patent in 1715. Throughout U.S. history, there are numerous examples of women who have developed inventions that increased industry efficiency and safety, advanced key technologies, developed solutions to solve important problems, and ultimately, spread prosperity. And yet, well into the 21st century, the country still faces a shortage of women entering critical STEM fields.
Here are a few examples of women throughout history who have made waves in advancing science, engineering, technology, and innovations that can inspire a new generation of American Athenas.
Transforming the Clothing Industry
Textiles and apparel anchored the 19th century New England economy. The federal government issued the first patent to Mary Kies in 1809 for inventing a new process for weaving straw with silk. New England’s hat industry adopted this process because it strengthened the construction of fashionable hats. At the time, New England’s economy was suffering from an embargo on goods from Europe during the War of 1812, but Kies’ invention and the hat industry kept it humming. Later in the 19th century, a woman named Harriet Brown created an efficient scientific system for cutting and assembling women’s clothes, helping pave the way for mass production of women’s clothing.
Transforming Hair Care, Employing Women
A child of former slaves, Sarah Breedlove was working as a laundress and suffering from hair loss. Inspired by a dream, she began mixing formulas to fight hair loss, and changed her name to Madam C.J. Walker. She developed Madam Walker’s Wonderful Hair Grower and the Walker Hair Care System for Black women, which involved scalp conditioning and a therapeutic salve. Her business grew rapidly, and in 1910, she founded the Walker Manufacturing Company to produce a line of products. Her business model employed thousands of licensed sales agents who demonstrated and sold products in the home. Many of these “Walker Agents” earned far more money than they could before, and Madam Walker became one of the wealthiest women in the United States.
Making Waves in STEM
Working with her husband in the early 1900s, industrial engineer Lillian Gilbreth drove the convergence of time-and-motion studies with industrial psychology. She laid the groundwork for ergonomics by bringing in human factors to the study of workforce efficiency. Moved by the physical disabilities caused by industrial accidents and the injuries of soldiers returning from World War I, she conducted studies demonstrating how many amputees could do the jobs of two-legged and two-handed men. She worked to modify industrial and home environments to allow them to work and lead a better life. Gilbreth became the first women elected to the National Academy of Engineering.
Laying the Groundwork for Wireless Communication
Hollywood starlet Hedy Lamarr was interested in machines since childhood. Howard Hughes, an aviation pioneer and movie mogul, encouraged Lamarr to innovate, and gave her equipment to use in her trailer on the set. She eventually earned a patent in 1942 for her frequency hopping communication system, designed to reduce jamming of radio-controlled torpedoes. Frequency hopping is considered a foundational development in wireless communications.
Leading the Beginning of Coding
With mathematics degrees, and a career in the Navy and emerging computer field, Grace Murray Hopper believed you should be able to write computer programs in words, rather than symbols. She invented the first computer compiler, which translates written instructions into machine code. This led to COBOL, which became at one point in time the most widely used computer language in the world. Murray Hopper received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation in 1991, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016. Her legacy lives on — NVIDIA’s new chip is the GH200 Grace Hopper Superchip.
Athenas of Today — and the Future
Today, American women have reached the pinnacle of the U.S. science and technology enterprise. They lead top U.S. research universities and national laboratories including Lawrence Livermore, Brookhaven, as well as the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Women also spearhead crucial Federal R&D agencies at the Departments of Defense and Energy, and the National Institutes of Health. American women are well positioned for the biotech revolution, far outnumbering men in attaining U.S. bachelor’s degrees in biological and biomedical sciences.
However, women in the United States are far less likely to pursue engineering education, even as powerful technologies reshape our world, commercial space opens, we on-shore microchip manufacturing, and we create an infrastructure for the 21st century. For example, of those who earn U.S. bachelor’s degrees, men are more likely than women to earn degrees in engineering, including aerospace and astronautical/space, electrical, electronics, communications, and civil, and in computer science.
Our nation has an unprecedented opportunity to leverage rapidly advancing technology to generate economic growth, improve standards of living, and bolster national security. Emerging technologies also hold great promise to answer serious challenges we face in areas from clean energy to global food supply. These opportunities and challenges are too great not to have more women engaged in — and leading — their associated domains.
We can show young girls and women of all ages their possibilities by highlighting the legacies of our past and successes of our contemporary Athenas. We must shape incentives to encourage women to study in crucial engineering fields and provide the mentors to guide them in their education and careers. Together, we can build a new generation of Athenas at scale that will help shape and forge an ever more innovative, sustainable, and prosperous future.
