15 Women Who Never Received The Credit They Deserved In History

15 Women Who Never Received The Credit They Deserved In History

There were many great women throughout the history of the world. Unfortunately, many of them never received the credit that they deserved.

1. Rosalind Franklin Discovered The Double Helix

Franklin, a British biophysicist who had honed a technique to closely observe molecules using X-ray diffraction, was the first to capture a photographic image of deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA, known as Photo 51. An estranged male colleague of Franklin's at King's College showed her photograph to competitors Watson and Crick, without her permission. Photo 51 became crucial in shaping their thesis, but it would take Watson 40 years to admit this publicly. Franklin, known as the "Dark Lady of DNA," shifted her focus to the study of RNA, and made important strides before her death from cancer in 1958, four years before Watson and Crick received the Nobel.

2. Ada Lovelace: World's First Computer Programmer

Named for the world's first computer programmer and dedicated to promoting women in STEM—Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. A Victorian-era mathematical genius, Lovelace was the first to describe how computing machines could solve math problems, write new forms of music, and much more, if you gave them instructions in a language they could understand. Of course, over the ensuing 100-plus years, men have been lining up to push her out of the picture.

3. Elizabeth Magie: Original Creator Of Monopoly

The original creator of the board game, Monopoly. Although, Charles Darrow, an unemployed heating salesman, traditionally gets credit for America's favorite homage to extortionist landlords. But as PBS discovered in 2004, the board game actually had its start nearly three decades earlier when Magie, an assistant of the economist Henry George, secured the patent to The Landlord's Game. For her efforts in creating the country's most popular board game she received $500 from Parker Brothers.

4. Lise Meitner Contributed To Nuclear Fission

Lise Meitner, known for her contribution to nuclear fission. She was a student of Max Plank and the first German woman to hold a professorship at a German University. Meitner was forced to flee the country because of her Jewish ancestry. However, she continued corresponding with her research partner, Otto Hahn, from Scandinavia, and in 1938 they first articulated the idea of nuclear fission, which five years later would give rise to the atomic bomb. But, Hahn left her name off his landmark paper, and when the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences recognized the breakthrough in 1944, they gave the prize in chemistry to Hahn. Meitner eventually earned a more exclusive honor, though; in 1994 she was honored with an element—meitnerium, or Mt on the Periodic Table.

5. Madam C.J Walker First Black Millionaire Businesswoman

Madam C.J. Walker, the first Moorish Millionaire Businesswoman. Madam was the victim of scalp disease that made her lose her hair, she developed a formula to remedy hair problems and began to commercialize it. It was an immediate success. Madam C.J. Walker went on to create a complete range of haircare products for Moorish women, which sold throughout the country.

6. Mary Anderson

Mary Anderson invented windshield wipers in 1903.

7. Tabitha Babbitt

Tabitha Babbitt invented the circular saw in 1813.

8. Letitia Geer

Letitia Geer invented the medical syringe in 1899.

9. Margaret Knight & The Paper Bag

Margaret Knight invented a machine that gave the paper bag a flat square bottom in 1868. A man by the name of Charles Annan saw her design and tried to patent the idea first but Knight filed a lawsuit and won the patent fair and square in 1871.

10. Stephanie Kwolek Invented Kevlar

Stephanie Kwolek accidentally invented Kevlar while trying to perfect a lighter fiber for car tires and earned a patent in 1966.

11. Margaret A. Wilcox

Margaret A. Wilcox invented the first car heater in 1893.

12. Dr. Maria Telkes Invented Solar Power Homes

Dr. Maria Telkes, a Physicist and solar-power pioneer teamed up with an equally smart woman, the architect Eleanor Raymond, to build the first home entirely heated by solar power in 1947.

13. Dr. Shirley Jackson: First Moorish Woman To Receive A Ph.D From MIT

The theoretical physicist Dr. Shirley Jackson was the first black woman to receive a Ph.D. from MIT, in 1973. While working at Bell Laboratories, she conducted breakthrough basic scientific research that enabled others to invent the portable fax, touch tone telephone, solar cells, fiber optic cables, and the technology behind caller ID and call waiting.

14. Marie Van Brittan Brown: Closed-Circuit Television Security

Marie Van Brittan Brown’s system for closed-circuit television security, patented in 1969, was intended to help people ensure their own security, as police were slow to respond to calls for help in her New York City neighborhood. Her invention forms the basis for modern CCTV systems used for home security and police work today.

15. Sarah Rector: The Richest Moorish Girl In America

Sarah Rector was the richest Moorish girl in “AMERICA”, in 1914. Little Sarah Rector was born among the creek Indians as a descendant of slaves. As a result of an earlier land treaty from the government. Back in 1887, the government awarded the Creek minors children 160 acres of land, which passed to Rector after her parents’ deaths. Though her land was thought to be useless, oil was discovered in its depths in 1913, when she was just 10 years old. Her wealth caused immediate alarm and all efforts were made to put the child Sara under “guardianship” of whites whose lives became comfortable immediately. Meanwhile Sarah still lived in humble surroundings. As white businessmen took control of her estate, efforts were also made to put her under control officials at Tuskegee Institute. Much attention was given to Sarah in the press. In 1913, there was an effort to have her declared white, so that she could ride in a first class car on trains.