We all talk about the many great inventions, discoveries, and ideas women have brought into the world. From Marie Curie and her discoveries of the elements radium and polonium to Amelia Earhart who was the first person to fly non – stop across the United States - we’ve all heard of them. So, for this month, I wanted to take time to talk about some lesser-known women who have all made important contributions and invented simple, everyday things we take for granted. I hope this article will be as surprising and interesting as I have found writing it.
First up, the hairbrush! Lyda Newman was a black American inventor and hairdresser. She was frustrated with the design of the hairbrush available in the 1890s. They were all made with animal hair, leading to poor hygiene, low durability, and cleaning difficulties. Furthermore, they were too soft and fine to treat the thicker texture of African hair. Newman proposed using synthetic fibers and an openable compartment in which you could easily discard all the gathered dust and hair after each use. This meant hairbrushes were cheaper to produce, and easier to manufacture. While this may not seem so important, her design is used as the basis of all hairbrushes today and changed the hair care industry to be more inclusive of different ethnical hair textures.
Next up, windshield wipers. Now that’s something I know we all take for granted. In 1903, Mary Anderson was stuck in traffic in New York City. It was snowing, and her taxi driver had to keep getting out to clean the window. And so her idea was born. She proposed a lever inside the vehicle which controlled the spring-loaded arm connected to a rubber blade. This would remove rain or snow, and, as cars became more common, her invention was adapted to fit different models. She made driving safer, easier, and more practical.
And lastly, the chocolate chip cookies we all know and love! Ruth Wakefield was a nutritionist and an enthusiastic baker. She and her husband ran a small inn called Toll House Inn. Wakefield managed the cooking and menu of the inn, and, overtime, Toll House Inn became known for its simple yet uniquely creative dishes and especially, their desserts. The inn started with seven tables but were soon serving more than sixty.
Wakefield and her cooking assistant were experimenting with different variations of pecan drop cookie dough, however, Wakefield felt there could more interesting variations. She planned to add plain no sweetened chocolate drops to the mixture to serve when welcoming new guests. However, when she started to bake them, she discovered she was out of plain bakers’ chocolate, and so resorted to using her only option: Semi – Sweet Nestle bars. She chopped them into small bits and sprinkled them around the dough. At first she believed they would melt too much and spill out into the dough mixture, but instead she found they kept their shape and became the warm, melty, and gooey treat we love. Soon after, she and Nestle made a deal in which her recipe could be printed on the back of Nestle chocolate bars, in exchange for a lifetime supply of chocolate.
I hope this serves as a reminder that you don’t need to be a scientific genius to make a huge difference in the world. Whether it be a simple cookie recipe that makes someone smile on a bad day, or a hairbrush that makes your morning routine just that little bit easier – small things make a huge difference. Women consistently throughout history have demonstrated this through creativity and perseverance, and so, maybe all of us can try to be a bit more like them.

History books are all full of important men who have changed the world: Napoleon, Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton. However, could any of these figures have gotten to where they are today without women?

It is crucial to remember millions of women who are not written about. The women who cooked for their families, organized their household and mothered their children, all were part in enabling the men to build the theory of relativity, antibiotics and even create the telephone. They are the forgotten members of society whose contributions are just as valuable as any person whose name lies in a history book.

Is it important to recognize that human developments are not achieved by individual men or women but are built by many characters working together for the benefit of society. During this week and all our lives, it is crucial to acknowledge all humans equally.
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Should we study the past through the prism of individual men whose names populate the history books, or should we learn the waves of evolution that have run through time. Would the Second World War have been avoided had Hitler died at birth? Or was it because of the social and economic circumstances of the time? A single mark in history must not be pointed at an individual and instead be seen as a collective buildup.

History loves to shout the names of generals and kings, to spotlight its loudest voices... It builds statues for conquerors, writes books about their battles, and teaches their strategies in classrooms. These men are remembered and praised for generations, yet, behind every gun fired, every code cracked, and every battle won, there was a woman whose name we were never taught. She remained in the shadows, unseen but essential.   
Most of us can name several male war heroes present in history with no hesitation. But how many women can you name who helped win wars or who, as the men, made huge sacrifices? Five? Four? Maybe less. That's not your fault- after all, it’s how history was written. But just because their names aren't in our textbooks doesn't mean they didn't shape history, and it most certainly doesn't mean that we can just ignore them.  
This article is about those women. The ones who worked in silence and fought for a future that forgot them. From the cloistered rooms of Bletchley Park to the fields of the Eastern Front, these are the women who kept history moving while no one was looking. 
At Bletchley Park in England, countless women worked tirelessly during WW2 on one of the most critical missions of WW2: breaking Nazi codes. Women made up almost ¾ of the staff and many of them were central figures in the deciphering of the German Enigma code. Among them was Joan Clarke, a extremely talented mathematician and cryptanalyst who helped break the enigma code alongside Alan Turing. Her story appears in The Imitation Game, though the film only briefly explores the profound importance of her real-life contributions. She, along with thousands of other women helped shorten the war by what is estimated to be 2 to 4 years- saving millions of lives.  
Yet their work has remained largely underappreciated- not just because it was classified for security reasons, but because history simply wasn’t written to celebrate women’s achievements. 
Women also played a  key role in the world of espionage, with some becoming the most fearless and effective agents in war. Often overlooked due to their gender, they used society's assumptions to their advantage. Sexism allowed women spies to move unnoticed, gather key intelligence and lead critical sabotage missions. Among the many extraordinary women were Nancy Wake, known as the “white mouse”, who became one of Gestapos most wanted spies for her resistance in France, and Virginia Hall, a top OSS (the American intelligence agency and predecessor of the CIA) agent, who, despite having a prosthetic leg, built vast underground networks and repeatedly evaded nazi capture.  
 These women risked everything- not for glory and recognition, but because they knew what was at stake. And no, they weren't just supporting players- they were vital to the fight. 
While most women worked behind the scenes, others took their fight directly to the battlefield. Nowhere was this more visible than in the USSR. While most Allied countries banned women from combat, the Soviet Union took a different approach, recruiting many women to fight on the front lines in WW2. These women served not only as nurses but as snipers, pilots and tank drivers.  
Lyudmila Pavlichenko, is a prime example amongst the numerous women who served. She is one of the deadliest snipers in history, with over 300 confirmed kills, she has become a powerful symbol for the Soviet Union. Equally heroic were the Night Witches, an all-female bomber group who flew old wooden planes in low-altitude night raids. Their missions were so dangerous that many flew without parachutes (because the added weight could mean death). But they did it anyway, again and again, with extraordinary precision and unimaginable courage. 
These women were not exceptions. They were part of a larger, invisible army of women whose strength, resilience, and intelligence helped shape the outcome of the war. From the skies over Eastern Europe to the rooms at Bletchley Park, and the resistance networks of France, women were not just helping from the sidelines- they were holding the entire war effort together. 
Today, several institutions and leading historians openly acknowledge that women’s roles in wartime have been underrepresented- not because their contributions were insignificant, but because history was documented through a male-dominated lens. For decades, the stories of women who worked, fought, and sacrificed were left out or kept to the margins. But as these stories are finally being uncovered and told, we have a chance to rewrite the narrative- to recognize that women were essential to history. ​