6 Inventions and Theories Made by Women but Credited to Men
Jocelyn Bell Burnell: Pulsars
A graduate student at University of Cambridge, 24-year-old Jocelyn Bell Burnell was a leading researcher in the field of astrophysics. In 1967, she made a huge breakthrough as she saw strange markings in the radio frequencies of a telescope. After researching them, she discovered a “pulsar,” which was a compact star that emits radioactive waves through two poles. In spite of her work, she was not recognized for her efforts and the Nobel Prize was presented to Antony Hewish and Martin Ryle.
ENIAC Women: First Electronic Computer
As the US Army fell short of male recruits for its engineering division at the start of the World War II, they had to recruit women. They trained six women by the name of Kathleen McNulty, Frances Bilas, Betty Jean Jennings, Ruth Lichterman, Elizabeth Snyder, and Maryn Wescoff. They worked on the ENIAC, a massive computer style machine that was created to work in conjunction with the war. During their stint, they worked to greatly improve the machine to operate much better than its initial function. As media coverage swelled, the only mention of the people behind the machine were the male engineers Presper, Eckert and Mauchly.
Nettie Stevens: Sex Chromosomes
Nettie Steves actually discovered that the size difference in the 20th chromosome was the determining factor in the sex of an embryo. She was the initial discoverer of this fact, but her colleague and mentor E.B. Wilson was given credit instead.
