Hidden History

You won’t find much about women tinkerers in print but you can be assured that they are out there somewhere. The instinct to tinker doesn’t seem to be gender specific but there are lots of cultural factors affecting how it is manifested in women.

Years ago, girl’s traditional childhood toys were paper dolls and sewing kits, not erector sets or electrical parts like the boys had.  In those times, boys also had labs or workshops in which to tinker and girls did not. Despite that, some young women tinkered. They tinkered with what they had to work with. Paper dolls and sewing kits became the tools for women to tinker with new types of foundation garments during the fashion revolution in the 1920’s.

In that earlier time, women could not get a patent. Anything they invented had to be registered in their husband’s or father’s name. Thus, the list of tinkerer-inventors up to that time is almost exclusively male. Now, as we are learning more about female tinkerers, there is strong evidence that tinkering has always been alive and well among women.

• In 1870 Margaret Knight invented a machine to fold and seal paper bags.
• In 1886 Josephine Cochran developed the first commercial dishwasher.

We can surmise that one woman’s childhood kitchen set led to the recipe tinkering that gave us toll-house (a.k.a. chocolate chip) cookies.

Women and the Automobile

Invention of the automobile in the 1910’s coincided with public perceptions of the changing relationship of women to technology and mobility. In her book, “Tinkering”, Kathleen Franz describes the rise of the popular literature of the time extolling the exploits of “The Motor Girls”. Stories about these feminist heroines provided role models for young women and encouraged them to gain the technical knowledge to be able to tinker with automobiles and they did.

One woman, Mary Anderson, is credited with inventing the windshield wiper. Another tinkered with her 1918 flivver to fit it out for long distance driving. She installed de-mountable rims, an electric starter, and shock absorbers. These were all aftermarket accessories that she had to tinker into the basic Model T. Other women tinkered to make the cars more comfortable and better suited for family travel. Then, things changed.

The popular magazines auto advice columns began to focus on auto tinkering by men and boys. The “Motor Girls” faded into history. Women moved into the passenger seat and men fiddled with the carburetor when the car wouldn’t start. It would be a while before women would again have such a great opportunity to tinker with machines.

WWII – The Breakthrough

“Rosie” led the women back to tinkering! Ask your grandmother about Rosie the Riveter and what she did for introducing women of all ages to working with and tinkering with big versions of the ‘toys” that men had always played with. These women now had more than just household items and kitchens for workshops. Now they had access to and experience with new types of workshops and tools and they made the most of it.

Women learned all the skills of the men they replaced. When the war was over, a few women continued on in fields that had previously been alien to them, (e.g., engineering, electronics, construction). Most returned to their home “workshops”. In 1946 Marion Donovan tinkered a disposable diaper from a shower curtain and safety straps. Some returned to their pre-war office jobs. In the early 1950s, Bette Nesmith Graham tinkered to formulate “Mistake Out” liquid correction fluid.

Recent Tinkering Inventions by Women

In more recent times the opportunities for women to tinker and invent have grown substantially and they are now actively tinkering and inventing in many fields. A woman tinkerer fashioned the bulletproof Kevlar vests now almost universally worn by security personnel. Here are just some of the more recent areas where women tinkerers have been and continue to be active.

Women Invented These

• Glare Free Glass
• Call Center Design
• Caller ID and Call Waiting
• Rocket propulsion systems
• Solar Heating
• Spread Spectrum radio
• Closed Circuit Television (CCTV)
• Airplane Engine Muffler
• Coffee Filter

Encouraging Young Women to Tinker

The American Association of University Women (AAUW) has commented on the fact that many of the biographies of the best-known innovators of our time are filled with childhoods of taking things apart and putting them back together. And too few of these famous innovators are women.

They note that girls rarely get the chance to tinker with building or repairing things. Such activities lead into careers in engineering, science or technology. They have asked everyone to “Let the girls in your life tinker.”  They believe that girls who are given the freedom to explore and discover things for themselves through tinkering activities are more likely to grow into women who confidently explore fields like engineering and technology.

Future of Women Tinkerers

Some of the changes sought by the AAUW have been happening. The way is open for women tinkerers to become active in almost all fields of endeavor. The only exception seems to be in the world of computer gaming where the male gamers are actively resisting women entrants. In all other areas, the way seems clear for women to develop and apply their tinkering skills.

There is still much work to be done. How many girls do you know who can name any women who tinker and invent or look to them as role models? Women tinkerers still are not likely to get much recognition. However, if you let your search engine look for them, you will find examples and role models in many field of endeavor.

Building a “Rosie” Future

Women can now can tinker virtually. They can dream what they would like to tinker with, create it and tinker with it in a virtual tinkerer’s workshop. They can learn and use digital tools to work and tinker in the many and varied areas in which they are now employed. A woman city planner might tinker with traffic patterns to reduce congestion. Women architects might use digital skills to visualize and tinker with the interiors and exteriors of planned buildings.

Toy makers are now actively developing kits for girls to make things (Unfortunately, they are still packaging them in pink).

A new book, just out is titled “Rosie Revere, Engineer”. Written for very young girls, it is about a girl tinkerer who dreamed of becoming a great engineer. She was inspired by her aunt who was a WW II Rosie.

The opportunities are there in almost every field in which women are employed. This could be another breakthrough time – an era when “Rosies” will bloom in every field of endeavor.

from “A Tinkerer’s Notebook”, Bill Flury, Kindle Publishing, 2017