Women
Ruth Fulton Benedict
🔍 Anthropology
- did fieldwork in the American west among the Serrano, Zuni, Cochiti, Pima, & Mescalero Apache
- collected Native American's folklore stories
- 1922 as a first-time teacher at Barnard College taught Margaret Mead who became her close friend & occasional lover over a 25-year period even though both were married
- believed the greatest taboos in life were crying in front of people & showing expression of pain
- went partially deaf as a child due to measles
- was fascinated with death as a child & throughout her life
- father died when she was 21-months-old & her mother never recovered from the grief of his death & the stresses of being a single-mother of two daughters, she was a teacher & struggled financially
- began writing short verse when she was 7
- published her poems under the pseudonyms Ruth Stanhope, Edgar Stanhope, & Anne Singleton
- after her death, Margaret Mead supervised projects she had begun & edited & published studies she had begun
- was among the leading cultural anthropologists recruited by the US government for war-related research & consultation after the US entered WWII
- began teaching at Barnard College in 1922 & Columbia University in 1924
- the American Anthropology Association awards a yearly prize named for her, she appeared on a 1995 US postage stamp & Benedict College in Stony Brook University is named after her
- her mentor was Franz Boas, often considered the Father of American Anthropology & a father-figure for Benedict
- until her divorce in 1931, she was unable to draw a salary for her teaching at Columbia because it was believed married women did not require a salary
- her husband refused to grant permission for her to have surgery to cure her infertility & surgeons at the time would not perform surgery on married women without the consent of their husbands
- her partial deafness caused her to develop an approach for decoding visual information to analyze a culture & it became known as a subfield of anthropology known as visual anthropology which was not widely accepted until the 1970s
- her papers from 1905-1948 are housed at the Vassar College Library & 8,000 pages are available online at Alexander Street Press Anthropology database list
Born: 1887
Country: USA
Education: Vassar College BA English Literature 1909; The New School-no degree, credits transferred to Columbia University; Columbia University PhD Anthropology 1923
Ruth Mary Rogan Benerito
🔬 Physical Chemistry
💡 Inventor
- Held 56 patents
- Was known for her work related to the textile industry, notably the development of wash-and-wear cotton fabrics
- Completed high school at 14 & entered college at 15
- Worked at USDA 1954-1986
- Discovered wrinkle-resistant, stain- & flame-resistant fabrics
- Her inventions were said to have "saved the cotton industry"
- Was very humble about her discoveries & often said they were the work of many people
- Her research led to the development of glassy fibers that proved useful in the manufacture of lab equipment
- During the Korean War she developed a way to give fat intravenously to patients too sick to eat; it was a method used to feed seriously wounded soldiers
Born: 1916
Country: USA
Education: 1935, BA Chemistry, H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College; 1938, MA Physics, Tulane University; 1948, PhD Physical Chemistry, University of Chicago; 1972, Post-doctoral Fellowship in Biophysics, Tulane University
Miriam Elizabeth Benjamin
💡 Inventor
- Was the 2nd Black female to receive a patent in the US
- 1888, invented the Gong & Signal Chair used in hotels
- 1st Black female to practice as a patent attorney
- 1888-1895, was a teacher in the DC segregated municipal school system
- 1888 census lists her as living at 1736 NY Ave, NW in DC
- 1917, she received a patent for her Sole for Footwear, intended to help with temperature regulation in the foot
- 1903, reportedly received a patent for a pinking device for dressmaking (confirmation & patent number not found)
- Under the pseudonym E.B. Miriam composed musical pieces, including songs & marches for piano & band; "Boston Elite Quickstep" was reportedly performed by Sousa's band & another of her compositions was used by Theodore Roosevelt's presidential campaign in 1904
Born: 1861
Country: USA
Education: Howard University, Medicine & Law, 1894-1895
Regina Marcia Benjamin
⚕️ Medicine
- none
Born: 1956
Country: USA
Education: 1979, BS Chemistry, Xavier University of Louisiana; 1980-1982, Morehouse College of Medicine; 1984, MD, University of Alabama; 1991, MBA, Tulane University
Cora Agnes Benneson
⚖️ Law
✍️ Author
- was licensed to practice law in Illinois and Michigan
- 1883 to 1885 she traveled the world to learn about legal cultures and how they affected women.
- was licensed to practice law in Massachusetts in 1894
- opened a school for the "Americanization of Foreigners" in 1918
- at age 8 was writing and editing a magazine with her sisters and cousin called The Experiment
- was proficient in reading Latin at 12
- briefly worked as an editor of West Publishing's law reports in 1886
- 1887 took a history fellowship under then-professor Woodrow Wilson
- was a founder of the Unity Clubs of Ann Arbor and Quincy, a member of the College Club, and incorporating counsel for the Woman's Club House Corporation of Boston
- died the day before authorization to operate her school for the Americanization of Foreigners arrived
- applied to Harvard Law School but was rejected because she was female
- her letters, notes & diary entries of her world tour were published in 1890 in The Unitarian magazine as part of a series called "Palestine To-day"
- she held nativist beliefs and portrayed foreigners in racist & stereotypical ways
- believed women shouldn't marry until they were economically independent
- Ralph Waldo Emerson was a frequent visitor in her parents' home when she was growing up & influenced her philosophical studies
Born: 1851
Country: USA
Education: University of Michigan Bachelor of Arts 1878, Bachelor of Laws 1880, Master of Arts in Jurisprudence & German 1883; Radcliffe College MA 1902
Angela Benton
💼 Entrepreneur
- Is a cancer survivor
- 2011 founded NewMe, the 1st startup accelerator for minorities globally
- Has helped minority-led tech companies raise over $50 million in venture capital funding
- Is the founder of Well Living Farms, a 10-acre permaculture family farm in SW Florida
- 2007, co-founded Black Web 2.0
- 2018 founded Streamlytics, a next generation data ecosystem that provides ethical, human powered data to democratize data collection
- 2017, authored "Revival: How I Rebuilt a Life for Longevity After Cancer, Burnout & Heartbreak"
- 2017, travelled to Malawi to support local villages with solar-powered electricity through a micro fund; powered 10 villages
Born: 1981
Country: USA
Education: 2004, BFA, Visual Communication specialization in Digital Design, American InterContinental University; 2007, MFA Graphic Design, Savannah College of Art & Design
Amalie Auguste Melitta Bentz
💡 Inventor
💼 Entrepreneur
- Invented paper coffee brewing system in 1908
- She 1st used blotting paper from her son Willy's school exercise book & a brass pot punctured with a nail
- Was granted a patent by Kaiserliche Patentamt (Imperial Patent Office) June 20, 1908
- Her husband, Hugo, and their 2 sons, Willy & Horst, were her employees working at home to assemble, package & sell the filters
- Sold 1200 filters in 1909 at the Leipzig Fair
- 1910, won a gold medal at the International Health Exhibition & silver medal at the Saxon Innkeeper's Association
- Couldn't make the filters during WWI because paper was rationed; supported the family by selling cartons
- Set up Melitta Aid Systems, a social fund for company employees it offered Christmas bonuses, increased vacation days from 6 to 15 per year, & reduced the work week to 5 days
- Her grandchildren still run the company & it is still in Minden, Germany
Born: 1873
Country: Germany
Education: unknown
Bertha Benz
💼 Entrepreneur
- Invented brake lining & insulation for ignition wiring
- 1888, took the 1st long distance (66 miles) car ride in a combustion powered engine vehicle
- Used her dowry to finance her husband (Carl's) automotive business
- Helped design &financed the development of the Motorwagen
- Took sons (Richard 13 & Eugen 15) on her trip without telling her husband or getting permission from the authorities
- Took the trip to convince the public autos could be useful & to promote Carl's business
- The car had no fuel tank; there was 4.5 liters of ligroin (the fuel) in the carburetor; fuel could only be purchased in pharmacies she had to find along the way
- On the trip she cleaned a clogged fuel line with her hat pin, used her garter as insulation material, when the brakes started to fail she had a cobbler install leather creating the 1st brake lining, her sons had to push the car up steep hills, a blacksmith had to repair a chain; these problems resulted in her making several suggestions for improvement including a 3rd gear for climbing hills, brake linings & insulation
Born: 1849
Country: Germany
Education: Unknown
Evelyn Berezin
💻 Computer Science
⚛️ Physics
- Designed the 1st computer-driven word processor & worked on computer-controlled systems for airline reservations
- Started college at age 16
- Designed a system for the US Army for range calculations
- Developed the 1st computerized banking system
- 1968, had a job offer from NYSE retracted because she was a female 1969, founded Redactron Corporation & made the 1st "Data Secretary"-a word processor the size of a small refrigerator, without a screen, keyboard, or printer, was an IBM Selectric typewriter
- Endowed a scholarship, a chair/professorship/research & discretionary fund for the Linguistics Dept at Stony Brook University
- Held 13 patents (only 8 located)
Born: 1925
Country: USA
Education: 1946, BS, Physics Hunter College
Gertrude Berg
✍️ Screenwriter
🔍 actress
🔍 producer
- born Tillie (or Tilly) Edelstein
- wrote the scripts for her NBC show in pencil for the entire run of the series
- her husband refused to be photographed with his wife for publicity purposes, as he felt this was infringing on her success
- she wrote nearly all of the radio episodes (more than 5,000) plus a Broadway adaptation, Me and Molly (1948)
- the scripts from the first season of the radio show were later published in book form
- CBS brought "The Goldbergs" to TV in 1949 & it has become known as the 1st TV sitcom
- 1950 her co-star Philip Loeb was blacklisted by the McCarthy hearings & sponsors wanted him fired but she refused; in June 1951 the sponsors of the program withdrew due to pressure from HUAC & the show was dropped by CBS but eventually picked up by NBC; Loeb resigned in 1952 because he didn't want to cause any more trouble for Berg (he committed suicide 3-4 years later) : the show went off the air in 1954
- Wrote an advice column "Mama Talks"
- had a radio show from 1929 until it went to TV in 1949
- husband Lewis (a chemist by training) was on the team during World War I that invented instant coffee for use by US troops
- her 1st radio show ran for 1 episode in 192 and was called "Effie & Laura" it was about two clerks in a dime store (cancelled because the character Laura remarked "marriages are never made in heaven")^was terrified of flying & traveled by train or boat
- you can listen to a lot of the shows for free online, courtesy of the UCLA Film & TV Archive or The Jewish Television Network
Born: 1899
Country: USA
Education: 1916-1918 took extension classes in playwriting at Columbia University
Rebecca M. Bergman
⚛️ Chemical Engineer
- holds 5 patents
- worked at Medtronics,Inc 1989-2014 with 14 years as Senior Executive
Born: Unknown
Country: USA
Education: Princeton University BSE Chemical engineering 1978; University of Minnesota PhD Chemical engineering & Material Science 1982
![Photo of Bertha "Bert" Dagan Berman](/women_pictures/Berman_Bertha "Bert" Dagan.png)
Bertha "Bert" Dagan Berman
💡 Inventor
- her design for fitted sheets had corners sewn in a way that would fit the sheet to the mattress and incorporated elastic edges
Born: 1909
Country: USA
Education: Unknown
Carlotta A. Johnson Berry
⚛️ Electrical Engineering
💻 Computer Engineering
🔍 Robotics
- none
Born: 1970
Country: USA
Education: 1992, BS, Mathematics, Spelman College; 1993, BS, Electrical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology; 1996, MS, Control Systems, Waye State University; 2003, PhD, Electrical Engineering with a focus on human-robotic interface, Vanderbilt University
Matilene Spencer Berryman
🔍 Oceanography
⚖️ Marine Law
- born & raised in Virginia, the 5th of 9 children
- was often the only female in her college classes & at work
- joined the US Naval Oceanographic Office in 1957
- went into private law practice in 1983
- Chair of the Department of Environmental Sciences at the University of the District of Columbia from 1970 to 1981
- only female on the Defense documentation Center council
- won 1sy place for her needlework at the Centre's Home show
- practiced civil, environmental, & marine law initially then added probate & personal injury law
- was disbarred in 2000 for comingling estate funds with her own & failing to fulfill the legal duties due to her clients
- her personal papers were donated to Mooreland-Springarn Research Center in 2010
Born: 1920 or 1926 depending on the source
Country: USA
Education: American University BA Mathematics 1957; University of Rhode Island MA Marine Affairs with a concentration in Oceanography & Sonar Engineering 1979; Howard University School of Law Law Degree 1973
Federica Bertocchini
🔬 Molecular Biology
- her research suggests that water-based enzyme solutions could be implemented by waste processing plants or at-home plastic waste kits, establishing a wider distribution of this game-changing technology & what’s left would only be natural components, such as ketones or alcohol, deemed safe for release or reuse in other processes
- with colleagues, Paolo Bombelli and Christopher Howe, found that each worm created an average of 2.2 holes per hour & it would take 100 worms nearly a month to completely break down an average, 5.5 gram plastic bag
- is one of two leaders of a Madrid-based company called Plasticentropy that is working to commercialize the use of the enzymes to break down plastic waste
- is an amateur beekeeper
Born: Unknown
Country: Spain
Education: Universita de Pisa University Degree Molecular Biology; Open University London-DIBIT PhD Molecular Biology 2000
Carolyn Ruth Bertozzi
🔬 Chemistry
🔬 Glycobiology
- Won Nobel Prize in chemistry 2022
- Coined the phrase "bioorthogonal chemistry" for chemical reactions compatible with living systems & invented the field
- 1st female recipient of Lemelson-MIT Prize Faculty award
- While an undergraduate, played keyboard in several bands, most notably Bored of Education with future Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello
- While at Berkeley, discovered viruses can bind to sugars in the body & led her to the field of research in glycobiology
- Holds 32 patents
Born: 1966
Country: USA
Education: 1988, AB Chemistry, Harvard University; 1993, MS & Phd Chemistry, University of California, Berkely; Postdoctoral work in Immunology, University of California, San Francisco
Andrea Louise Bertozzi
📊 Applied Mathematics
- none
Born: 1965
Country: USA
Education: 1987, AB Mathematics, 1988, MA Mathematics, 1991, PhD Mathematics, Princeton University
Mary Jane McLeod Bethune
🔍 Social Justice
📚 Education
- nicknamed "The First Lady of the Struggle" due to her commitment to gain better lives for African-Americans
- was co-owner of a 2-mile stretch of beach in Daytona called Bethune-Volusia Beach Inc or Paradise Beach that allowed African-Americans access to the beach & 25% of Welricha Motel
- called her students "Black Roses" & the 2022 statue of her in the National Statuary Hall Collection in the US Capitol depicts her holding a black rose
- in her will she outlined her philosophy which empathized "the importance of love, hope, education, racial dignity, & support for future generations"
- was appointed by President Truman to attend the founding conference of the UN in 1945 & was the only woman of color there
- was 15th of the 17th children born to her parents who were former slaves
- was the only person in her family who attended school & taught the others what she learned
- her son Albert was the only male attending her school in Daytona
- is the 1st Black woman to have a national monument dedicated to her in the nation's capital-the statue was erected in Lincoln Park in DC in 1974
- she worked in the cotton fields of her family with all other family members when she was 5, by the time she was 9 she could pick 250 pounds of cotton a day
- her initial goal after college was to do missionary work in Africa but she couldn't find a church willing to sponsor her so she became a teacher instead
- was close friends with Eleanor Roosevelt
- appeared on a US postage stamp in 1985
- her final resting place & home in DC are designated National Heritage Sites
- was known in the Black press as the "Female Booker T. Washington"
- was President of Bethune-Cookman college 1923-42 & 1946-47
- her home in Daytona Beach is a National Historic Landmark
- as a child she decided the only difference between Black & white children was the ability to read & write & this inspired her to learn
- walked 5 miles daily to walk to school in a 1-room Black schoolhouse (Trinity Mission School)
- made the library at Bethune-Cookman available to all Black Floridians & it was the 1st free library available to them
- during her years of working to get Black women to register to vote she was threatened by the KKK
- carried a cane for effect not support & said it gave her "swank"
- in 1991 the International Astronomical Union named a crater on Venus after her
- over 20 schools, streets, a scholarship program, & parks are named after her
- she collected photographs for a gallery of outstanding men & women, walking canes of famous men, & miniature elephants
- the Library of Congress has a collection of videos, radio programs, & interviews of her
Born: 1875
Country: USA
Education: Scotia Seminary (now Barber-Scotia College 1893; Moody Bible College in Chicago 1895
Sangeeta N. Bhatia
⚛️ Biological Engineering
🔍 Nanotechnology
- Applies ideas from computer technology & engineering to the design of miniaturized biomedical tools for the study & treatment of diseases, especially liver disease, hepatitis, malaria, & cancer
- Co-authored the 1st undergraduate textbook on tissue engineering with Bernhard Palsson in 2004
- Helped found Diversity Committee of the Biomedical Engineering Society
- At MIT, helped start Keys to Empowering Youth, a program that brings middle school girls to visit high-tech labs to encourage them to pursue careers in science & technology
- She & her co-workers have used techniques from 3-D printing to create a lattice of sugar as a framework for a synthetic vascular system with the goal of supporting larger tissue structures such as an artificial liver
- Holds 37 patents
Born: 1968
Country: USA
Education: BS,Brown University; 1993, MS Mechanical Engineering, MIT; 1997, PhD Biomedical Engineering& Medical Physics, 1999, MD, Harvard Medical School
Patricia A. Bianconi
🔬 Chemistry
- personal information about her was minimal; holds 5 patents
Born: Unknown
Country: USA
Education: Yale University BS; Columbia University MA; MIT PhD
Allyson Bieryla
⚛️ Astrophysics
🔭 Astronomy
- hobbies include playing soccer, being outdoors, traveling & enjoying live music
- LightSound prototype was developed for the 2017 Solar Eclipse with 1 device in Jackson Hole WY & 2 in Kentucky-1 at Morehead State University & the other at the Kentucky School for the blind
- 2019 the LightSound was redesigned with a new, higher dynamic range light sensor & a midi-board was added to improve sound quality then 20 devices were distributed across Chile & Argentina with another 100 added in 2020
- The LightSound Project is completely open source & instructions for building one are available in English, Spanish & French at: astrolab.fas.harvard.edu/LightSound.html
- the site also has a map of locations for donated devices & organized viewing events that is updated every time another device & event is listed for the 2024 eclipse
- the LightSound team consists of Bieryla, Soley Hyman, Elliot Richards, Wanda Diaz Merced & Daniel Davis & is financially supported by the International Astronomical Union, the American Astronomical Society, NSF & the Simon's Foundation
- the LightSound device costs approximately $60 each to make
- she & her colleagues have also developed Orchestar a device that uses a sensor to translate colored light to sound & can interface with LightSound
Born: Unknown
Country: USA
Education: University of Colorado at Boulder BA Astrophysics, Physics & Fine Arts 2005; Harvard University Extension School MA Software Engineering 2002 & Graduate Level Certificate Data Science 2019; University of Queensland PhD in Astrophysics expected completion 2026
Patricia Billings
💡 Inventor
🔍 Sculptor
- worked as a medical technologist & TB researcher before switching to sculpture
- studied fungal & bacterial diseases at Kansas City Junior College
- began studying art in 1956 & made plaster of Paris Sculptures
- decided to make a stronger sculpture medium after a swan sculpture she was in the final stages of making collapsed & shattered
- studied the chemical composition of Renaissance Era frescoes &, after 8 years of experimenting in her basement, came up with Geobond, it took her almost 8 more years to perfect & patent it
- has turned down a $20 million buyout offer because she feared the company would bury the technology
- a collection of visual aids, newspaper clippings, photos, awards, & certificates concerning her & her inventions are housed at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Special Collections & Archives/Pat billings Collection identifier MS-0290
Born: 1926
Country: USA
Education: Kansas City Junior College; Amarillo College
Rachel Binah
🔍 Community
✊ Environmental Activist
🎨 Artist
- served as chair emeritus of the California Democratic Party's Environmental Caucus and the Democratic National Committee committeewoman
- interested in health care, spearheaded by her father suffering from Alzheimer's disease
- owned a bed and breakfast, Rachel's Inn, in Little River, California
- began campaigning against off-shore drilling in California in 1984
Born: 1942
Country: USA
Education: Unknown
Hazel Gladys Bishop
🔬 Chemistry
🔍 Cosmetics
🔍 Academia
- 1942 worked as an organic chemist for Standard Oil Development Company (now Exxon) designing fuels and discovered the cause of deposits affecting superchargers of aircraft engines
- 1930s developed a pimple concealer and mentholated tissues which never went to market
- 1951 became the first woman to appear solo on the cover of Business Week
- attended college with the intention of becoming a doctor but the stock market crash of 1929 ended her academic career
- lost control of her company in 1954 in a proxy fight with majority stockholders
- 1962 she became a stockbroker and financial analyst and was an expert regarding cosmetics stocks first with Bache and Co. (1962–1968), then for Hornblower & Weeks-Hemphill Noyes in 1967, and ultimately for Evans & Co. (1968–1981)
- 1978 became a professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City
- appointed to the Revlon Chair in Cosmetics Marketing in 1980 where she helped the school launch its Cosmetology, Fragrance, and Toiletries program
- used bromo acid dyes to get her lipstick to last
- after being ousted from her company she continued to make her own smudge-free lipstick at home for her personal use until her death
Born: 1906
Country: USA
Education: Barnard College BA Chemistry 1929; Columbia's College of Physicians & Surgeons postgraduate classes in biochemistry
Mary F. Bishop
💡 Inventor
- her patents were filed in Bridgeport, CT in 1888 & 1894 & in Boston, MA 1919
- the only information located about her was her patents
Born: Unknown
Country: USA
Education: Unknown
Irene Rena Bizios
⚛️ Bioengineering
- 1stfemale chemical engineer to receive a PhD in the biomedical engineering program at MIT
- was on staff at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) 1991-2006, leaving to work at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA)
- during her 1st 3 years at UTSA also lectured at Clemson University & the University of Kentucky
- holds 5 patents
Born: Unknown
Country: USA
Education: University of Massachusetts-Amherst BSc Chemical Engineering 1968; California Institute of Technology MSc Chemical Engineering; MIT PhD Biomedical Engineering 1979
Elizabeth Helen Blackburn
🔬 Molecular biology
⚕️ Medical Ethics
- 2009 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with Carol W. Greider & Jack W. Szostak for the discovery of telomerase
- 1st Australian female Nobel Laureate
- 2002, appointed to President's Council of bioethics; terminated by the Bush Administration in 2004 for her opposition to their policy against stem cell research; 170 scientists signed an open letter to the President maintaining she was fired because of political opposition to her advice & some scientists argued her firing was a violation of the Federal Advisory Committee Act of 1972 which requires "balance on such advisory bodies"
- Teaches chronic stress, unhappiness, lack of sleep, & exercise lead to shortening of telomerase & increase the effects of aging
- Holds 6 patents
Born: 1948
Country: Australia
Education: 1970, BS Biochemistry, 1972, MS Biochemistry, University of Melbourne; 1975, PhD Molecular Biology, University of Cambridge; 1975-77, Postdoctoral work, Yale University
Elizabeth Blackwell
⚕️ Medicine
- 1st female to earn a medical degree in the US
- 1st female on the Medical Register of the General Medical Council for the UK
- Pioneer in promoting education for women in medicine
- Was a teacher but became a doctor after a friend fell ill & remarked she might not have suffered so much if her doctor was female
- Was rejected from every medical school she applied to with the exception of Geneva Medical college in NY after the male students voted for her admission as a joke
- Her thesis on typhoid fever published in 1849 was the 1st medical article published by a female student in the US
- With her sister, Emily, founded the NY Infirmary for Women & children in 1857
- 1874, helped found the London School of Medicine for Women
- Organized nurses during the American Civil War
- Her sister Emily was the 2nd female in US to obtain an MD
- 1849, while treating an infant with opthalmia neonatorum she was accidentally squirted with some contaminated fluid into her left eye, contracted the infection, losing sight in the eye which subsequently had to be removed & ended her intention of becoming a surgeon
- In 1856, adopted Katherine "Kitty" Barry (1848-1936) an Irish orphan & raised her as a half-servant, half-daughter
Born: 1821
Country: Great Britain
Education: Geneva Medical College, 1847-1849; St. Bartholomew s Hospital
![Photo of Emily "Milly" Blackwell](/women_pictures/Blackwell_Emily "Milly".png)
Emily "Milly" Blackwell
⚕️ Medicine
- was the 6th of 9 surviving children
- in her youth was an expert in flowers & birds studying the species found near her home
- 1832 family emigrated to the US, lived in NY & NJ before settling near Cincinnati OH in 1837
- attended Rush Medical college in Chicago for 1 year but wasn't allowed to attend for her 2nd year due to complaints from male students about having to study with a woman caused the Illinois Medical society to bar her from further attendance
- after obtaining her MD studied in Edinburgh, Paris, Berlin & Dresden to honeher skills
- raised $50,000 to establish the medical school in 1859
- managed the Infirmary & oversaw surgery, nursing, bookkeeping & fund raising after her sister moved to England & Marie Zakrzewska left to open her own practice
- ran the Infirmary until retiring in 1900 but made sure her medical students were admitted to the new Cornell University co-ed medical school
- taught obstetrics & gynecology at the Women's Medical College for over 30 years
- at age 44 she & her partner Dr. Elizabeth Cushier adopted a baby named Nanny
- her applications to medical school were turned down by 11 colleges beforee being admitted to Rush who ultimately also rejected her
- was the 3rd female in the US to receive an MD
- the Infirmary is now part of NY-Presbyterian Hospital Lower Manhattan Hospital
- toured Europe for 18 months after retiring
- lived in her sister Elizabeth's shadow for most of her life with several of her photographs & accomplishments credited to Elizabeth
- was described as shy & retiring for most of her life
Born: 1826
Country: England
Education: Cleveland Medical College (now Case Western Reserve University) MD 1854
Sara Treleaven Blakely
💼 Entrepreneur
💡 Inventor
🔍 Philanthropist
- is a minority owner of the Atlanta Hawks
- wanted to be an attorney until she did poorly on the Law School Admissions Test
- briefly worked as a stand-up comedian after college
- between the ages of 27-29 spent $5,000 savings (equivalent to $9,300 in 2023) researching and developing her hosiery idea while she continued to be a salesperson for Danka selling office equipment
- November 2000 Oprah named Spanx one of her "Favorite Things" so she quit her job at Danka & began Spanx
- Richard Branson was her mentor & provided $750,000 for her to start her Foundation
- 2013 became the first female billionaire to join the "Giving Pledge," Bill Gates and Warren Buffett's pledge
- 2020 pledged to give $5 million to support female-run small businesses during the coronavirus pandemic
- served as her own model both on television and at in-store public appearances across the U.S.
- is a Guinness World Record holder for climbing the side of a hot air balloon and having tea on top even though she is afraid of heights
- enjoys making pancakes in crazy shapes for her four small kids
- was a guest "shark" on Shark Tank seasons 9 & 10
- holds 28 patents
- is afraid of flying
Born: 1971
Country: USA
Education: Florida State University BA Communications
Helen Augusta Blanchard
💡 Inventor
- Held 28 patents; 22 for sewing machines & sewing technology
- Introduced the buttonhole stitch
- 1881, founded Blanchard Overseaming company of Philadelphia
- 1882, founded Blanchard Hosiery Machine Company
- One of her ZigZag sewing machines is on display in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in DC
- Her sewing machine inventions were installed in large factories & saved time & money in the commercial sewing industry
- She had no formal mechanical training
- She also received a patent for an improved pencil sharpener & surgical needle
Born: 1840
Country: USA
Education: no formal education
Daniela Eugenia Blanco Jimenez
⚛️ Chemical Engineering
🤖 AI
- she, her co-founders of Sunthetics (Myriam Sbeiti & Miguel A. Modestino) & the company are featured in the 2021 documentary, Own The Room, streaming on Disney+
- was raised by a single-mother in Venezuela
- initially wanted to be a neurosurgeon but changed to chemical engineering after discovering she could not handle the sight of blood while observing a surgical procedure
- moved to the USA in 2017 to attend NYU
- her company is located in Texas
- holds 4 patents
Born: Unknown
Country: Venezuela
Education: Universidad Simon Bolivar BS Chemical Engineering 2016; NYU MS 2018 & PhD 2020 both in Chemical Engineering
Lilian Bland
🔍 Aviation
✍️ Journalist
📷 Photographer
- Was one of the 1st women to design, build, & fly an aircraft, the Bland Mayfly
- She lived an unconventional lifestyle for ma woman of her time, working as a sports journalist & photographer, smoking, wearing trousers, hunting, shooting, & fishing
- For her first attempt, she built a flyable model biplane with a wingspan of 6 feet
- 1910, built a full-scale glider from spruce, bamboo, & canvas with the help of friends; its wingspan was 20 feet 7 inches & it weighed 200 pounds; it was equipped with a 20 horsepower engine, used an empty whiskey bottle for a gas tank, & her deaf aunt's ear trumpet was the engine hose
- Her first flight was August 1910 & she stayed in the air for 1/4 mile; her only controls were a bicycle handlebar
- In 1911 she briefly ran a car dealership in Belfast but gave it up to get married
- she wrote a guide on how to safely fall off a horse while hunting
- She took the 1st recorded color photographs of birds
Born: 1878
Country: Great Britain
Education: unknown
Sylvia Elise Blankenship
🔍 Horticulture
- Identified 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP), a compound which extends the storage life of fruits & flowers
- She spent her childhood summers on a ranch in Texas
- 1996, she received a patent & licensed it to Floralife
- She grew up in the suburbs of northern Virginia
- Holds 2 patents
Born: 1954
Country: USA
Education: 1977, BA, 1979 MA Horticulture Science, Texas A&M University; 1983, PhD Horticulture Science, Oregon State University
Katharine Burr Blodgett
⚛️ Physics
🔬 Surface Chemistry
- While working at GE she invented "invisible" or non reflective glass
- 1st female awarded a PhD in Physics from the University of Cambridge
- Spent her summers at a camp at Lake George in NYS & pursued her love of gardening
- Was an avid amatuer astronomer & collected antiques
- Wrote funny poems in her spare time
- 1901, her widowed mother moved to France so Katharine & her brother would be bilingual
- Wasn't enrolled in school until she was 8
- 1st woman to work as a scientist for GE Lab in Schenectady, NY
- 1st major cinematic production to use her invisible glass was Gone With the Wind in 1939
- Invented the color gauge-a method to measure the molecular coatings on the glass to 1 millionth of an inch
- Made improvements to gas masks during WW1
- Held 8 patents
Born: 1898
Country: USA
Education: BA Physics, Bryn Mawr College, 1917; MS Physics, University of Chicago, 1918; PhD Physics Newnham College of the University of Cambridge, 1926
Bessie Virginia Blount Griffin
⚛️ Physical Therapy
💡 Inventor
- Was a nurse
- Invented an electric, self-feeding apparatus for amputees using plastic, boiling water to mold it, a file, ice pick, hammer, & some dishes to make the prototype
- 1st African-American female to train & work as a forensic scientist at Scotland Yard in 1977
- Used forensic skills to authenticate documents related to slavery, the Civil War & Native American treaties with the US
- 1953, appeared on Philadelphia TV show, The Big Idea, to promote her inventions; was the 1st African-American on the show
- Attended a 1-room schoolhouse in Hickory, VA built after the Civil War
- Originally wrote with her left hand but a teacher reprimanded her & insisted she use her right hand; was ambidextrous
- Taught herself to write without using her hands but using her teeth & feet instead
- Stopped her formal education after the 6th grade because there were no other educational options for African-Americans
- Became self-taught & ultimately earned a GED
- As a physical therapist, taught her amputee patients to use their teeth & feet to perform tasks
- Cared for & worked closely with Theodore Edison, son of Thomas Edison
- The VA Hospital turned down her self-feeding device; she licensed it freely to the French government instead
- The VA also declined her invention for a disposable emesis basin so she sold the invention to a company in Belgium
- Although it is believed she invented 3 things (self-feeding device, device that held a bowl onto the neck for self-feeding & an emesis basin) only 1 patent was located
Born: 1914
Country: USA
Education: Community Kenney Memorial Hospital Nursing Degree; Union College-NJ Physical Therapy Certificate; Panzer College of Physical Education (now part of Montclair State University) Certified in Physical Therapy
Elyse Blue Corn
🔍 Potter
💡 Inventor
- no information about this woman was found. The achievement was provided by a friend of Jane's who might have more info but her achievement could not be confirmed.
Born: Unknown
Country: USA
Education: Unknown
Arlene Blum
🔬 Biophysical Chemistry
🤖 Mountaineer
- first climb was in Washington, where she failed to reach the summit of Mount Adams
- was rejected from an Afghanistan expedition in 1969, with its leader writing to her, "One woman and nine men would seem to me to be unpleasant high on the open ice, not only in excretory situations but in the easy masculine companionship which is so vital a part of the joy of an expedition."
- 1970, she requested to join a high altitude expedition, but was told that she was welcome to come as far as the base camp to "help with the cooking."
- after graduation from graduate school took a year off to climb peaks around the world
- wrote a book about her experience on Annapurna, called Annapurna: A Woman's Place.
- crossed the Alps from Yugoslavia to France, bearing her baby Annalise on her back in a backpack
- her memoir is titled Breaking Trail: A Climbing Life
- she & her team at Green Science Policy Institute have led several successful national and international campaigns against the use of toxic chemicals, particularly halogenated flame retardants
- founder of the annual Berkeley Himalayan Fair and the Burma Village Assistance Project
- completed the Great Himalayan Traverse across the mountain regions of Bhutan, Nepal, and India
- has been a research associate in chemistry at UC Berkeley since 2017
Born: 1945
Country: USA
Education: Reed College BS Chemistry 1966; MIT 1966-67; UC Berkeley PhD Biophysical chemistry 1971
Nellie Bly
✍️ Investigative Journalism
- Real name is Elizabeth Jane Cochran (later Cochrane) Seaman
- took pen name Nellie Bly from a popular Stephen Foster song of the time
- childhood nickname was "Pink" because she was often dressed in the color
- had a pet monkey she named McGinty she purchased in Singapore while on her trip around the world
- was the 13th of 15 children born to her father's 2 marriages
- father rose from a mill worker to mill owner & justice of the area, died when she was 6 &, by the time his estate was divided, there was little for his 2nd wife & her 4 children
- helped her mother run a boarding house after being forced to drop out of college after 1 semester due to lack of funds
- 1885 wrote a response to a Pittsburgh Gazette article which stated women were only good for birthing children & keeping house & signed it "Lonely Orphan girl"
- paper editor placed an add asking her to identify herself ( when she did, offered her a job writing 2 more columns
- signed the 3rd column Nelly bly but an editor's error changed it to Nellie & she kept the pen name
- had a weekly column & wrote articles criticizing of factory conditions & was demoted to writing about fashion, society, & gardening
- volunteered to be a foreign correspondent in Mexico at age 21
- spent 6 months writing about the lives & customs of Mexican people
- fled Mexico under the threat of arrest after writing articles criticizing the government & dictatorship under Porfirio Diaz
- moved to New York & got a job working for Joseph Pulitzer's New York world after 6 months
- quit writing for the newspaper after her trip around the world & began writing serial novels for the weekly New York Famil Story Paper
- wrote 12 novels for them between 1889 & 1895
- novels were lost until 2020 when they were located in editions of the paper discovered in the belongings of the editor, they were republished in 2021 under the title "The Lost Novels of Nellie Bly"
- 1895 married Robert Seaman, a wealthy industrialist 42 years older then her & she quit writing
- due to Robert's failing health & death in 1904 she assumed leadership of his business the Iron clad Manufacturing Comapny; she was more concerned for the welfare of her employees & was a poor businesswoman
- company went bankrupt due to her negligence & the embezzlement of funds by a factory manager & she returned to journalism in 1911
- honored with a US postage stamp in 2002
- 2021, the Puzzle Girl art installation honoring her opened on Roosevelt Island
- the New York Press Club awards a yearly Nellie Bly Cub Reporter award
- 2 plays and an opera are based on her life
- there are numerous books written about her & she is depicted in numerous movies & television shows
- there is a board game about her around the world journey
- a Brooklyn New York amusement park, fireboat, species of tarantuala, & train are named after her
- she wrote 3 non-fiction books which are mainly compilations of her articles & 1 novel in addition to her 12 serial novels
- many of her original articles can be found at historicjournalism.com/nellie-bly.html
- held 5 patents
Born: 1864
Country: USA
Education: 1 semester Indiana University of Pennsylvania 1879
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