NOVEMBER 2021: Necessity is the Mother of Invention

Women have invented so many things to make life easier. When my children were young, I noticed a lack of products that could help mothers but did not invent them. I’ve seen many of these items enter the market since and thought “A woman invented that!” For example, the clip that holds a baby’s soother to her clothes, better designs for clothing that make it easier to dress your baby and jogging strollers.

Women have invented so many things to improve our lives. As far back as 1871, Margaret Knight invented the square bottom paper bag and in 1872, Josephine Cochran invented the first dishwasher to use water pressure to clean. In 1908, Mary A. Delaney invented the retractable dog leash. In 1914, Florence Parpart invented the electric refrigerator. In 1951 Bette Nesmith Graham invented Liquid Paper and in 1986, Patricia Bath invented Laser cataract surgery. Lisa Gelobter invented GIF Animation and Marie Van Britton Brown invented the Home Security System. Mariam Croak invented VoIP Technology (think Skype, Google Hangouts, etc.) and Sarah Goode invented the Murphy Bed and sofa bed. Such great additions to the world!

Juggle, juggle, juggle! Women wear many hats each day and even when they have a full-time job, they get home to manage the ‘second shift’ with all its complexities. Studies still show that in a family, women put in more hours of work at home than their husbands do. I’m not sure how this is still possible, but it is well studied.

We each come from a long line of remarkable women – women who managed a family and many who made do with very little.  In most ways, we have fewer constraints than they did.
As we begin to emerge from lockdown, let’s choose which hats we want to pick up, again. I’m considering what I want to do outside my home. I’m looking forward to live theatre and art shows. What do you want to do? What don’t you want to do? Look around in awareness.

I’ve been discovering more Women’s Art since I heard about the McMichael Gallery of Ontario’s show Uninvited (on until January). I’m excited that I will visit the gallery with a dear friend later this week.  
If you don’t want to leave home, check out The Canadian Online Art Book Project. The Art Canada Institute created it and there’s a large number of women artists profiled. You can read or download a whole book about each artist and see photos of their real lives, their art and learn more about these remarkable women.