Ada Lovelace Day: 5 Things You Never Knew Were Invented by a Woman

Ada Lovelace Day is an annual international celebration of the contributions women have made in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) industry. Founded in 2009, the day takes place every second Tuesday in October in order to create role models for young girls to look up to and to support women currently working in the area - and of course to celebrate some amazing women throughout history!

The day gets its name from Ada Lovelace commonly referred to as 'the first computer programmer', a young woman who worked to develop the Analytical Engine in the 1830's - the world's very first computing device, pictured to the right. As you can see, it is very different to the smartwatches we have today! Its main objective were to process calculations and to print once the results had been processed (fancy!).

So, are there many other influential women in STEM? Well, I'm glad you asked. Of course there are thousands to choose from, but here are 5 of my top role models and the contribution they made to the world we live in today.

1. Grace Hopper - Computer Programming

Where would an article about women in STEM be without a mention of Grace Hopper? This legendary woman was a United States Navy Rear Admiral who helped develop the first high-level computer programming language COBOL in the 1950s - a language which is still in use today! Additionally, Hopper also invented the compiler - the program which translates programming code (such as COBOL, Java etc) into machine language which can be understood by the computer - the same principle as Google Translate translating words from French into Spanish so two people can understand each other. This concept is just one of the many ways Hopper changed the game for computer programming as we know it, another example is how the coding term 'debugging' was coined from Hopper's work!

2. Shirley Ann Jackson - Caller ID

Shirley Ann Jackson was the first African-American woman to earn a doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1973 and is now the first African-American president of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute - the oldest technological research university in the United States. If these weren't already groundbreaking enough, Jackson also invented Caller ID and Call Waiting - two things we all take for granted today.

3. Hedy Lamarr - Wireless Transmission Technology

Hedy Lamarr was an Austrian-American actress and film producer who also invented the very first Wireless Transmission Technology in the 1940's - the invention which changed the world as we know it! From WiFi networks to GPS software, so many things which we take for granted in the 21st century were made possible by this incredible woman - who not only was a STEM revolutionary, but also was honored a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contribution to the film industry!

4. Mary Anderson - Windshield Wipers

Mary Elizabeth Anderson was an American real estate developer, who made her influential mark on the world in 1903. In a visit to New York City, Anderson noticed that a trolley car driver was struggling to see out the window due to the falling sleet, and upon returning to her home in Alabama designed the very first windshield wiper. The design was actually rejected by a Canadian firm in 1905, saying they couldn't see it having much commercial value! It was only in the 1920's, when driving became more popular, when Cadillac became the first manufacturer to adopt them as standard equipment, with other brands following after.

5. Evelyn Berezin - Word Processor

Berezin attended Hunter College University in 1941, she originally wanted to study Physics however studied Economics instead as it was preferred as a subject for women at the time. Among many other contributions, she created the Redactron Data Secretary Word Processing System in 1970, which was capable of composing and printing over 300 semi-personalized letters a day - companies without one were only able to produce a fraction of the amount of these letters as they would have been written out by secretaries through typewriters! This innovative machine laid the groundwork for the word processing software today - from Microsoft Word to social media!

Of course, there are thousands more everyday items we use which were invented by a woman - this is just the very tip of the iceberg. I encourage you to spread the word of Ada Lovelace day to your friends, colleagues and maybe even your cat in order to inspire young girls and encourage them into STEM subjects - who knows what inventions the next generation of women will bring!