Women - Women's Innovations

Abigail Adams

💰 Finance

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💰 Finance

Told the founding fathers to "remember the ladies" when making new laws
Received no formal schooling, was self-taught
As her husband, John Adams, became more active in politics & helping form the new nation, she took on the full responsibility of raising their 5 children & managing their farm outside of Boston
During a time when women weren't allowed to own property & all fiamily financial decisions were made by the men, she handled the family finances & made investment decisions, making her the reportedly 1st female investor in the colonies
While her husband wanted to invest in farmland, she felt US government bonds were a wiser choice & invested the famikly money in them
Was the 1st First Lady to live in the White House
1775, was appointed to the Massachusetts Colony General Court

Born: 1744

Country: USA

Education: None-self-taught

Rebecca Adamson

💰 Economics 💼 Businesswoman

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💰 Economics 💼 Businesswoman

left college in 1970 to work on western reservations to help end the practice of removing Native American children from their homes and placing them in government or missionary-ran boarding schools in the hope of destroying their connections to their native languages and cultures
her work contributed to the Indian Self-Determination Act of 1975
writes a monthly column for Indian Country Today newspaper
her first five years at the Coalition of Indian Controlled Schools were spent in and out of jail until the Indian Self Determination and Education Act was passed in 1975 making Indian self-determination legal
spent her childhood summers with her maternal grandmother in the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina
is of Cherokee descent
1970 dropped out of the University of Akron
studied philosophy at the University of Akron (no degree)
took courses in law and economics at Piedmont College in Georgia

Born: 1950 or 1949

Country: USA

Education: Southern New Hampshire University MS Economic Development

Madelaine (born Marie Jana Korbelova Albright

💰 Finance 🏛️ Politics

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💰 Finance 🏛️ Politics

Immigrated to the US in 1948, became a US citizen in 1957
Was an aide to Senator Edmund Muskie 1976-78
Helped assemble President Clinton's National Security council after 1992 Presidential election
1997, reported her parents never informed her or her siblings of their Jewish heritage, they converted to Catholicism during WWIIParents originally taught her at home so she wouldn't be exposed to communist teachings in Prague, 1st attended school in Switzerland
Changed her name to Madelaine after learning French
Met her 1st husband when she was an intern at the Denver Post
Worked as a picture editor at the Encyclopedia Britannica for 1 year (1960)
1st female Secretary of State

Born: 1937

Country: Czechoslovakia

Education: Wellesley College BA Political Science 1959; Columbia University MA, PhD 1975; Certificate in Russian from Russian Institute (now Harriman Institute)

Wanda Lena Austin

💼 Business Executive ⚛️ Engineering Aerospace

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Stephanie Avery Taylor

🔍 Racial Justice 📚 Environmental Educator 💰 Finance

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🔍 Racial Justice 📚 Environmental Educator 💰 Finance

has an extensive background in racial justice programming, environmental education and finance management
has been employed at Working Films (company akes documentaries to advance social justice & environmental protection) as Director of Finance & Organizational Resilience since 2018
occasionally teaches kids cooking classes centered on introducing cultures through food
enjoys playing music, cooking, hiking, exploring and spending time with family
personally built nature trails through the wetlands using the best practices of “Leave No Trace,” spearheaded the identification of the flora and fauna, and created a tent classroom

Born: 1975

Country: USA

Education: Coastal Carolina University Gerontology/psychology 1996-2000; UNC-Wilmington Religion-Asian Studies 2002-05; Landmark Learning Center Certification as an LNT Master Educator 2007

Romana Acosta Banuelos Bañuelos

💰 Finance

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💰 Finance

born in Arizona to poor immigrant parents the family was deported in 1933 when she was a child during the Great Depression; returned to the US as a citizen at 18, a single mother with 2 young sons
themain purpose of the Pan americanNational Bank she co-founded was to provide loans to Latinos who wanted to start their own businesses
established the Ramona Mexican Food Products Scholarship for poor Mexican-American students
during her Treasury nomination process US Immigration Service agents conducted a disruptive, publicized raid on her factory, arresting 26 illegal immigrants, a later investigation revealed the raid was an attempt to embarrass the Nixon administration
by 1979 her company was making & distributing 22 different food products, had over 400 employees & sales of $12 million a year
in the late 1990s allowed her 3 children to take over the daily operation of Ramona's
worked in a laundromat, as a waitress, diswasher & tortilla maker before she was able to save $500 to purchase equipment & open her own tortilla & tamale business with her Aunt Helen
in Miami Arizona attended a segregated school that was erected in 1923 for the town's Mexican children
during the deportation process the governement paid for the transportation of the family's belongings to the Mexican border, they lived with relatives on a farm they worked
an interview with her for the Arizona Memory Project can be located at azmemory.azlibrary.gov/nodes/view/159422

Born: 1925

Country: USA

Education: most sources indicate she had only a middle school education while Wikipedia indicates she attended Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies

Tarana Burke

✊ activist 💼 business executive

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Lady Tennessee Celeste Claflin, Viscountess of Monserrat

💰 Finance

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Jacqueline Cochran

🔍 Aviation 💼 business woman

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Esther Duflo Banerjee

💰 Economics

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💰 Economics

was the 2nd female & youngest person (age 46) to win a Nobel in economic sciences
most of her research has been situated in Africa & India
has been on the faculty at MIT since 1999
became an American citizen in 2012
spent 10 moths (1993-94) in Moscow as a French teaching assistant
grew up in a Paris suburb the middle child & noted her home was filled with freedon & joy
in 2019 J-PAL had 998 on-going or completed projects in their database running in 84 countries & at least 450 million people had been effected by policies scaled up after a J-PAL evaluation found them effective
before having children was an avid climber but now only climbs indoors & likes running, playing tennis & hiking
when she was 5 her father taught her how to ride the train by herself so she could visit a cousin who lived closer to Paris on weekends

Born: 1972

Country: France

Education: Ecole Normale Superieure BA History & Economics 1994; MA 1995 from DELTA (now Paris School of Economics) in conjunction with the Ecole Normale Superieure, Ecole Polytechnique & ENSAE; MIT PhD Economics 1999

Kathleen Eagan

💰 Finance 🏛️ politics 🔍 conservation

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💰 Finance 🏛️ politics 🔍 conservation

enjoys skiing, fly-fishing, and backpacking
is president of the Truckee River Habitat Restoration Group, which was founded in 1997 to promote watershed restoration in the area
works with the Truckee River Watershed Coordination Resource Management and Planning group, an effort get everyone coordinated to actively restore the watershed
ran for City Council of Truckee against 26 other candidates in 1993, received the most votes & 5 top electees were seated as the Council
was the 1st mayor of Truckee 1996
was a bank vice president before retiring to Truckee in 1986 after several years of visiting there to enjoy skiing, fishing & hiking

Born: 1943

Country: USA

Education: Unknown

Adena T. Friedman

💰 Finance

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Catherine "Kate" Anselm Gleason

⚛️ Mechanical Engineering 💼 Businesswoman

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⚛️ Mechanical Engineering 💼 Businesswoman

1st female member of ASME
Was Manager of Gleason Works in Rochester, NY
Kate Gleason College of Engineering at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) was named in tribute to her
Began helping her father in his gear factory after the death of her stepbrother Tom when she was 11 years old
1884, 1st female at Cornell Mechanical Arts Program; was unable to complete her studies because she had to help out at the family business
Became a travelling salesperson for the family business, touring Europe in 1893 to expand the business; 1900 represented the business at the Paris World Fair
Left the family business in 1913
1st female named a receiver by the Bankruptcy Court to take over Ingle Machine Company in 1914; restored the company to financial security & paid off all it's debts by the end of 1915
1918, appointed president of First National Bank of East Rochester; Helped launch 8 companies
Experimented building fireproof houses out of concrete & sold them for under $4,000
Was known for her philanthropy
Never married; viewed marriage as a hindrance to her professional life
1st female member of Verein Deutschen Ingenieure
1st female member of the American Concrete Institute
Held 1 patent

Born: 1865

Country: USA

Education: Cornell University; Rochester Institute of Technology; no degree, little formal training as an engineer; primarily learned by working in her father s gear company from age 14

Claudia Dale Goldin

💰 Economics 📚 Educator

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💰 Economics 📚 Educator

is a co-director (co-directing with Claudia Olivetti and Jessica Goldberg) of the National Bureau of Economic Research's (NBER) Gender in the Economy study group
was the director of the NBER's Development of the American Economy program from 1989 to 2017
1990 became the first woman to be tenured in Harvard's economics department
was determined to become an archaeologist until she read Paul de Kruif's "Microbe Hunters" (1926) in middle school & was drawn to bacteriology
in her sophomore year of college she took an economics class with Alfred Kahn & switched her major to economics
was an editor of the Journal of Economic History, from 1984 to 1988
for 28 years ending in 2017 was the director of the Development of the American Economy (DAE) Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)
is the 3rd female to win the Nobel in Economics & the only woman to have been the sole winner of the prize
one of the central findings of her research is that differences in pay and labor force participation are due not to biological differences but to differences in the division of unpaid caregiving responsibilities between heterosexual couples
other influential work of hers focuses on the history of women’s participation in higher education, including the reasons why women now comprise the majority of university undergraduate enrollment numbers; the impact of the contraceptive pill on women’s marriage and career decisions; the social indicator of women’s surnames after marriage; and the life cycle of women’s employment

Born: 1946

Country: USA

Education: Cornell University BA Economics 1967; University of Chicago MA Economics 1969 & PhD 1972 Industrial Organization & Labor Economics

Hetty Green

💰 Finance

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Kathryn "Kitty Lou" nee Carter Hach-Darrow

🔍 Water purification 🔬 Chemistry 💼 Businesswoman 🔍 Philanthropist

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🔍 Water purification 🔬 Chemistry 💼 Businesswoman 🔍 Philanthropist

flew her own plane to small airfields across the country to sell water purification kits
was the first woman director of the American Water Works Association
age 5 had her 1st ride in a plane (her father's) & loved flying ever since
earned money for freshman college tuition by raising and selling turkeys
accumulated over 7,000 hours flying time & was rated for multi-engine and instrument flying
at the age of 65 she acquired her license to pilot a jet
under her leadership Hach Chemical was instrumental in standardizing water-purification tests and pioneered many world-standard analytical instruments & their tests were designed to be simple and effective, with nontechnical directions that made their products easy for both chemists and non-chemists to use
as of 2012, about 70 percent of municipalities in the United States used Hach Company instrumentation
1999, she and her son Bruce sold the Hach company to Danaher Corporation
she & the Hach family were significant contributors to the building of Hach Hall, a new chemistry building dedicated at Iowa State University on October 8, 2010
due to the Great Depression her father had to sell his beloved plane & leave his car dealership & moved the family to a farm where they struggle to survive
her husband Clifford oversaw the company’s research and development while she dealt with business operations, marketing, and other general management
she pioneered a direct-mail campaign that radically expanded the company
was the first woman to serve on the board at Loveland’s First National Bank
1966 when the company reached 0ne million in revenue she celebrated by treating the entire company to her famous pecan pie, a tradition that accompanied subsequent celebrations
Clifford died in 1990 & she assumed the job of CEO, growing the company to become the largest woman-operated business in the state of Colorado, with annual sales in excess of $100 million
ss a young girl would crawl into her father’s airplane, outfitted in helmet and goggles, to sleep in the cockpit
1999 sold the Hach Chemical Company to science and technology company Danaher
employed three full-time teachers to offer 42 unique courses on subjects ranging from basic writing skills to algebra to her employees resulting in fewer production errors in the following weeks, and employee retention increased steadily

Born: 1922

Country: USA

Education: Christian Female College (now Columbia College) transferred to Iowa State University Food Science major 1944 (no degree located, probably dropped out to raise her family after marrying 1943 when a sophmore)

Ruth Marianna Moskowicz (AKA Mosco) Handler

💼 Businesswoman 💡 Inventor

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💼 Businesswoman 💡 Inventor

the Handlers were forced to resign from Mattel in 1975 after the Securities and Exchange Commission investigated the company for falsifying financial documents
was the youngest of ten children
at age six months old, her parents sent her to live with her older sister Sarah & she remained with her until she was 19
worked at Sarah’s drugstore/soda fountain
Barbie was named after her daughter Barbara & Ken was named after her son Kenneth
was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1970 & had a modified radical mastectomy
the 1st Barbie sold for $3 & 300,000 (some sources say over 350,000) were sold the 1st year
was charged with fraud and false reporting by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, pled no contest and was fined $57,000 (equivalent to $270,000 in 2024 and sentenced to 2,500 hours of community service
Barbie's full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts
paid $500,000 to become the sole sponsor of the Mickey Mouse Club in order to directly appeal to children instead of their parents
Mattel's first products were picture frames & doll house furniture
referred to herself as "Barbie's mom"
graduated from high school at 16 years old
as part of her mandated community service she started a foundation to help white collar criminals and disadvantaged young men access job training, while juggling her expanding prosthetics empire
was sued by the 2 Germans, Greiner & Hausser, who manufactured the Bild Lilli doll & eventually bought the rights from them
1 of Mattel's employees, John (known as Jack) Ryan, sued Mattel & claimed he was responsible for creating Barbie & it was named after his wife
no patents under Handler's name were located but 2 (#3009284 & 3277601) for dolls resembling Barbie were found under the name John W. Ryan
believed play was essential for a child’s cognitive, social, and emotional development, and strived to create toys that engaged and stimulated young minds
grew up a tomboy, thought "girl stuff" was stupid, & considered herself a loner
"America's Time Capsule," buried at the celebration of the Bicentennial in 1976 contains a Barbie doll
1980 sold her prosthesis company to Kimberly-Clark
dropped out of college in Denver at 19 and started working at Paramount studio as a stenographer/secretary
she & Elliot helped found Temple Isaiah in Los Angeles
faced antisemitism when growing up subsequently convinced her husband to use his middle name of Elliot instead of his given name of Isador & the nickname Izzy hoping to incur fewer incidents of antisemitism

Born: 1916

Country: USA

Education: UCLA; University of Denver 1935-36;

Stephanie Hill

💻 Computer Science 💰 Economics

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Sheila Crump Johnson

💼 Business 🤖 Entertainment

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Reatha Clark King

🔬 Chemistry 💼 businesswoman

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🔬 Chemistry 💼 businesswoman

Former Vice President at General Mills
Her father was a share-cropper & her mother only had a 3rd grade education
Began school in a 1-room school for grades 1-7 at a colored church
Originally a home ec major before switching to chemistry
1st African-American chemist employed at the National Bureau of Standards in D.C.
The techniques & methods she developed for flame fluorine calorimetry are still used today by NASA
Has a strong interest in education & promotes equal education for all

Born: 1938

Country: USA

Education: Clark College BS Chemistry & Mathematics 1958; University of Chicago MS Chemistry 1960, PhD Thermochemistry 1963; Columbia University MBA Financial Management 1977

Christine Madeleine Odette Lagarde

💰 Finance ⚖️ Lawyer

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Rebecca Lukens

💰 Finance 💼 businesswoman

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Johnnie Hines Watts Prothro

🔬 Chemistry 🔍 Nutritionist 💰 Home Economics

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Muriel "Mickie" Faye Siebert

💰 Finance

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💰 Finance

1st woman to own a seat in NYSE (1967)
1st woman to head 1 of NYSE's member firms
1st woman superintendent of banking for NYS
Known as the "1st Woman of finance"
1990, created Siebert Entrepreneurial Philanthropic Plan, it shared 1/2 of her firm's profits from new securities underwriting with charities of the issuers' choices
President of NY Women's Agenda (1998) & helped develop a program advocating Financial Literacy for Women
1987, successfully lobbied for a ladies restroom on the 7th floor of the NYSE
Developed a Personal finance Program that is taught in NY middle & high schools

Born: 1928

Country: USA

Education: Case Western Reserve University-no degree

Madam C.J. Walker

💰 Finance

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💰 Finance

Founder of Madame CJ Walker Manufacturing Company
1st child in her family (5 siblings) to be born into freedom
1906, began marketing her cosmetics & hair products for African-American women door-to-door in Denver; moved the business to Philadelphia in 1908 & opened her 1st salon to train "hair culturists" in the Walker Method
1913, opened her business in Harlem, New York
Her company closed in 1981 but the brand was purchased in 2013 by Sundial Brands & her products are now available exclusively at SRecords, she is the 1st female self-made millionaire in america
Showed Black women how to budget, build their own business, & be financially independent
1917, established the national Beauty Culturists & Benevolent Association of Madame CJ Walker Agents
Held yearly conventions & gave awards to agent who raised the most money for charity
Her lavish estate in Irvington, NY named Villa Lewaro was a social gathering place for the African-American community
Was orphaned at age 7; lived with an older sister & her husband; began working as a domestic servant at age 10
Had 3 months of formal education
Married at age 14 to escape abuse from her brother-in-law; widowed 5 years later; remarried 1894 but left this husband in 1903; married 3rd husband 1906, divorced 1912
1888, moved to St. Louis with her daughter' her 3 brothers were barbers there; while she worked as a laundress, they taught her about hair care

Born: 1867

Country: USA

Education: no formal education

Maggie Lena Walker

💰 Finance

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💰 Finance

Founder of richmond council of Colored Women
1904, was the leader of the Richmond Streetcar Boycott
Started 1st Girl Scout Troop for Black girls in the South
1903, 1st woman to charter a bank & serve as president of it, the St. Luke Penny Savings Bank in Richmond, VA
Her mother was a former slave
Her father's death was ruled a suicide but she believed he was murdered
Age 14, joined the Independent Order of St. Luke's, an African-American benevolent organization; held many high-ranking positions in the organization
1915, husband was killed by her son who had mistaken him for a burglar
After several mergers over the years, the bank still operates under the name Premier Bank
After an illness in 1928, was confined to a wheelchair

Born: 1864

Country: USA

Education: Richmond Colored Normal School H.S. Diploma 1883

Brownie Wise

💼 Business

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Victoria California Claflin Woodhull

💰 Finance

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Janet Louise Yellen

💰 Economics

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💰 Economics

Born & raised in Brooklyn, NY
78th US Secretary of the Treasury & 1st female to hold the position (2021)
Family is from Sokoliew, Podlaski a small town approximately 50 miles outside of Warsaw; nearly its entire Jewish population, including many of her relatives, were deported or murdered during the Holocaust
In high school was an honor society member & participated in booster, psychology, & history clubs; was editor-in-chief of the school newspaper & valedictorian of her class; school tradition called for the editor-in-chief to interview the valedictorian so she interviewed herself in the 3rd person
Her academic career focused on the analysis of the mechanisms of unemployment & labor markets, monetary & fiscal policies, & international trade
While at the Federal Reserve, preferred to be referred to as "chair" a gender neutral term as opposed to chairman or chairwoman

Born: 1946

Country: USA

Education: Brown University BA Econommics 1967; Yale University MA & PhD Economics 1971