---
title: "List of inventions and discoveries by women"
chunk: 4/8
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_inventions_and_discoveries_by_women"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T03:51:34.164784+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

== Household ==
Square-bottom paper bag
In 1868, Margaret E. Knight invented a machine that folded and glued flat-bottomed brown paper bags familiar to shoppers today. She obtained 87 US patents that include lid-removing pliers, a numbering machine, a window frame and sash, and variants on rotary engines.
Dishwasher
Josephine Cochrane developed in 1887 the first commercially successful dishwasher, together with mechanic George Butters.
Home security system
Marie VanBrittan Brown, mid 1960's.
Electric refrigerator
Florence Parpart, 1914.
Pedal bin
Lillian Gilbreth invented the pedal bin in 1914 for the disposal of kitchen waste. The foot pedal enables the user to open the lid without touching it with their hands.
Improved ironing board
In 1892, Sarah Boone obtained a patent in the United States for improvements to the ironing board, allowing for better quality ironing for shirt sleeves.
Central heating
In 1919, Alice Parker invented a system of gas-powered central heating. While her particular design was never built, it was the first time an inventor had conceived of using natural gas to heat a personal home, which inspired the future central heating systems.
Automatic Rotimaker
In 2008, Pranoti Nagarkar-Israni invented a kitchen robot called Rotimatic, which makes rotis, tortillas, pizza crusts and puris in under a minute. She has obtained 6 patents. The product makes use of artificial intelligence and Internet of Things to understand user requirements and improve itself after each use.
Correction fluid
Bette Nesmith Graham, the founder of the Liquid Paper company, invented one of the first forms of correction fluid in 1956.
House solar heating
Hungarian-American MIT inventor Mária Telkes and American architect Eleanor Raymond created, in 1947, the Dover Sun House, the first house powered by solar energy.
Wrinkle-free fiber
Wrinkle-free fiber invented by Ruth R. Benerito. The invention was said to have "saved the cotton industry".

== Cosmetics ==
Hot comb
The hot comb was an invention developed in France as a way for women with coarse curly hair to achieve a fine straight look traditionally modeled by historical Egyptian women. However, it was Annie Malone who first patented this tool, while her protégé and former worker, Madam C. J. Walker, widened the teeth.
curling iron
Theora Stephens patents a more effective curling iron.

== Vehicle appliances ==
Windscreen wiper
Mary Anderson is credited for inventing the first functional windscreen wiper in 1903. Two other inventors, Robert Douglass and John Apjohn, also patented windscreen cleaning devices in the same year.
Car heater
Margaret A. Wilcox invented an improved car heater, which directed air from over the engine to warm the chilly toes of aristocratic 19th-century motorists, in 1893. She also invented a combined clothes and dish washer.
Airplane mufflers
Eldorado Jones is credited with inventing a light-weight electric iron, travel size iron board, and airplane mufflers in 1919.
Underwater telescope
Patented by Sarah Mather in 1845, this permitted sea-going vessels to survey the depths of the ocean. It used a camphine lamp in a glass globe that was sunk in the water. The device allowed examination of the hull and other details from a person on the deck of a boat. In 1864 Sarah Mather improved her invention to detect Confederate underwater warships.

== Computing ==
Written computer program
During a nine-month period in 1842–43, Ada Lovelace translated the memoir of Italian mathematician Luigi Menabrea. The memoir covered the Analytical Engine. The translation contained Note G which completely detailed a method for calculating Bernoulli numbers using the Analytical Engine. This note is recognized by some historians as the world's first written computer program.
Written compiler
An early compiler related tool was written by Grace Hopper, in 1952, for the A-0 programming language. She also helped to popularize the idea of machine-independent programming languages which led to the development of COBOL, one of the first high-level programming languages.
Written (programming) languages
Nine coding languages were invented by women: ARC assembly language by Kathleen Booth in 1950, Address by Kateryna Yushchenko in 1955, COBOL by Grace Hopper along with other members of the Conference on Data System Languages in 1959, FORMAC by Jean Sammet in 1962, Logo by Cynthia Solomon in 1967 with members of her team, CLU by Barbara Liskov in 1974, Smalltalk by Adele Goldberg, Diana Merry, and four main other team members at Xerox PARC in 1980, BBC BASIC by Sophie Wilson in 1981, Rocq (previously knows as Coq) by Christine Paulin-Mohring along with eight development team members of the Lab in 1991. More generally speaking, women have strongly impacted the data processing domain especially women in computing.
GIF

Invented by Lisa Gelobter.