5 Women You’ve Never Heard of Who Changed Your Life

5 Women You’ve Never Heard of Who Changed Your Life

Hey merbabes! With everything going on in the world, let’s take a little mental break and remember that March is a time to celebrate because it’s Women’s History Month!

Throughout history, women have been changing the world, but don’t always get the credit they deserve. Most of us have heard of Marie Curie and several other women that are often included in history books, but what about the others? There must be more than the handful of women that we went over every year in elementary school history class.

Here is a list of five women you’ve probably never heard of whose contributions to the world affect your life more than you might’ve realized:

 

Jeanne Villepreux-Power

Villepreux-Power was a French marine biologist in the 1800s who realized that there had to be a better way to study marine life. In order to improve her research, she invented the aquarium. (1,2)

Thanks to her, we now have a better way to not only better understand how marine life works, but also enjoy and experience underwater fish and plants for ourselves!

 

Josephine Cochrane

Have you ever wondered what your life would be like without a dishwasher? How could restaurants efficiently keep dishes clean enough to continue serving meal after meal on the same dishes without spreading germs?

Although several less-effective prototypes had been created previously, Cochrane was the first to invent a durable, working, commercially successful dishwasher in the 1900s. Her company (Yay for female entrepreneurs!) became what is now called KitchenAid under the Whirlpool Corporation. (3)

 

Sarah Breedlove

Sarah Breedlove started out as a widowed washerwoman who noticed that the harsh chemicals used in haircare products for African Americans caused balding and disease. So, she took initiative and started experimenting with more natural ingredients to create gentler, more effective haircare products. (Sounds like she would have been on board with Earth Harbor’s mission!)

Breedlove, who came to be known as Madam C.J. Walker, achieved great success and became the first female self-made millionaire in the United States with her “Walker System of Beauty Culture.” (4) Talk about woman power!

 

Ann Tsukamoto

 

Tsukamoto is a Japanese American scientist and innovator. Her greatest contribution to medical science so far was the discovery of stem cell isolation in the 1990s. The hope is that her stem cell research will one day help the world find a cure for cancer. (5)

 

Sally Fox

Fox is a California-grown environmentalist and scientist. It wasn’t even twenty-five years ago that she created a way to breed naturally colored cotton.

Before her contribution to the cotton industry, the only colored cotton was dyed with harsh chemicals. Thanks to her, clothing can be made from softer, safer cotton to protect skin from the harmful effects of artificial dyes. 

The crazy part is that Sally Fox and many more of these women were only in her 20’s when they started to change the way we would eventually live our daily lives. (6)

 

So, let’s hear it for women! Especially in times like this, we need women like these to step up to the plate and make things happen. Never underestimate what women—even you yourself—are capable of.

Let’s dream of a world where history books are filled with the contributions of women to the point where it doesn’t have to seem like successful women are the exception rather than the rule.

Take some time today to not only celebrate the women in your life, but also to think of what you have to offer the world. Now go spread your sunshine!

 

 

Sources

(1) https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=12223

(2) https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jeanne-Villepreux-Power

(3) https://lemelson.mit.edu/resources/josephine-cochrane

(4) https://www.britannica.com/biography/Madam-C-J-Walker

(5) http://theinventors.org/library/inventors/bl_Ann_Tsukamoto.htm

(6) https://www.resilience.org/stories/2019-11-14/california-cotton-fields-sally-fox-reinvented-cotton-by-going-back-to-its-roots/

Leave a comment

REWARDS