5 Incredible Female Inventions

Earlier this month, Polish MEP Janusz Korwin-Mikke told the European Parliament during a debate on the gender pay gap in Europe that “women must earn less than men because they are weaker, they are smaller, they are less intelligent,” backing up his argument with that old benchmark of worldwide intelligence… chess.

Ladies, no matter what we do, we’ll never reach equality until we get past this hurdle of not being ranked in the top 100 chess players.

Later on, Janusz Korwin-Mikke asked a group of startled women to tell him one invention a woman came up with. ?As you’ll see in the video above, Joanna Scheuring-Wielgus, of the Nowoczesna Party was having none of ?it, but couldn’t get a word in as Mr Korwin-Mikke let everyone know how men invented tampons which is hard to confirm or deny really, considering women have been having?periods since literally Eve.

Should you have the misfortune of?coming across someone who has been taught all his life he can do and say whatever he would like and he asks you the same question, here’s five incredible female inventions to clap back with.

Beer

That’s right – a woman invented beer. Back in the day, only skilled women could run the taverns and brew the beer and it was considered to be a gift from a goddess.?Stick that in your stereo-pipe and smoke it.

Wireless Transmissions Technology

Do you like WiFi? Are you using it right this very moment? Well, you can thank?Austrian and American film actress Hedwig Keisler, or Hedy Lamarr. She was known as “the most beautiful woman in the world” – check her out above – and she was also an inventor. Her design, created with the George Antheil for a long-range torpedo guidance system, forms the basis of our modern mobile phone technology. It’s the precursor to the type of wireless communications used today in mobile phones, GPS and WiFi.?In 1997, Lamarr became the first female recipient of the BULBIE Gnass Spirit of Achievement Award, a prestigious lifetime accomplishment prize for inventors that is dubbed “The Oscar of Inventing.”

Solar Power

The first home entirely heated by solar power was built by?Dr. Maria Telkes, a physicist, and architect Eleanor Raymond.

Medical Syringe

You can thank Letitia Geer for the medical syringe, invented in 1899. It forms the basis of the medical syringes we still have today, an important medical tool that it is nearly a symbol synonymous with the practising physician.

CCTV

When police were slow to respond to calls in her NYC neighbourhood, Marie Van Brittan Brown’s took matters into her own hands and invented the?system for closed-circuit television security?to help people ensure their own security. Her invention still forms the basis for modern CCTV.

It’s suspected that there are many other female inventors we have to thank because back in the day in the US, women couldn’t get a patent in their own name, as it was considered a kind of property which women couldn’t own until the late 1800s – their property was in the name of their husband or father.