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Entity shares the female inventors who transformed modern living.

You’ve probably heard about Thomas Edison’s invention of the light bulb and Benjamin Franklin’s discovery of electricity, but you don’t often hear about female inventors. Many women have contributed groundbreaking ideas and inventions that have changed the way the modern American home operates.

Here are five female inventors whose ideas, both big and small, have helped improved our lives.

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1 Marion Donovan

Donovan may seem like the average 1940s housewife, but her quick wit and knack for inventing enabled her to develop over 12 patents, most notably the disposable diaper. Donovan began searching for a better diaper solution after her second daughter was born in 1946. She first used a shower curtain sewn onto a regular diaper to make it waterproof and then replaced safety pins with plastic snaps.

Unlike the rubber pants already in the market, Donovan’s waterproof diaper didn’t cause a diaper rash or pinch the skin. She sold this product at Saks Avenue in 1949 before moving on to her next big project, the disposable diaper. For the disposable diaper, she wanted something strong and absorbent. She took her finished products to every large manufacturer in the country but didn’t find a buyer until 1961, when Victor Mills drew upon her vision to create Pampers.

2 Lillian Gilbreth

Gilbreth is best known as the mother of modern management or as one of the first women to “have it all” – a career as well as 12 children. Famous as the mother featured in “Cheaper by the Dozen” – a true story written by two of her children about growing up in the Gilbreth household – this inventor and her husband not only made important strides in psychology working out human efficiency, but Gilbreth herself is credited with creating the foot pedal trash can and refrigerator shelves, according to Engineer Girl.

3 Patsy Sherman

You can thank Sherman for saving your favorite white blouse. Sherman was the inventor of the stain remover. She came across this invention while trying to develop a rubber material that would resist deterioration from jet air craft fuels. In 1953, after a lab assistant spilled chemicals on Sherman’s tennis shoe, she became curious about one spot void of stains and sought to replicate the results. Eventually Sherman’s research with Sam Smith led to the development of a versatile fabric stain repellent and material protection, Scotchgard, in 1956.

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The team continued to explore uses for the product and eventually expanded the Scotchgard line to include carpet treatment, automotive upholstery cleaner and various other products. Later, Sherman and Smith obtained 13 patents related to fluorochemical polymers and polymerization processes. Sherman was also elected into the Minnesota Inventors Hall of Fame in 1983.

4 Josephine Cochrane

Determined to ease the workload of women in the kitchen, Cochrane developed one of the most convenient appliances of our age, the dishwasher. Her first customers, however, were not the housewives she thought she was helping. Homemakers didn’t want to spend money on something they didn’t think they needed, so Cochrane turned to hotels.

She sold a dishwashing machine to the Palmer House hotel in Chicago. Then in 1893, Cochrane convinced restaurants at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago to use her invention and it ended up becoming an exhibit in Machinery Hall. That same year, she won a prize for having the best dishwasher at the 1893 Chicago World Fair. Today, around 78 percent of Americans have dishwashers, according to Bloomberg.

5 Joy Mangano

Recently portrayed by Jennifer Lawrence in the film “Joy,” Mangano is a modern-day inventor of household products like the Wonder Mop, Huggable Hangers, My Little Steamer, the Memory Cloud Warm and Cool Pillow and the Organize-it-All Beauty Case. Magano is a truly self-made woman. The single mother holds over 100 patents and is the face of the Home Shopping Network, according to Vanity Fair.

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From household appliances to baby products, various women have changed the way we live. Do you use any of these inventions? Comment below or tweet us at @entity_mag.

Edited by Ellena Kilgallon
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