10 Female Geeks Who Changed History
Celebrate the lives of ten women whose nerdy obsessions changed the world
Those who show a lot of enthusiasm for niche subjects, solve problems quicker than everyone else, or prefer to spend their free time furthering passion projects instead of socializing, often get labeled "geeks". It is a word that has been used as an insult to banish a person or group of people to a particular corner of the school cafeteria and make them feel ashamed of their talents and achievements. However, being a geek is something to celebrate, which is exactly why Geek Pride Day was created in the late 90s/early 00s, held annually around the world on May 25.
Geeks are usually gifted and unfazed by the idea of being different. Throughout history, their dedication to their specialist subjects has resulted in outstanding contributions being made to society. Today, we’re celebrating ten real-life women whose nerdy obsessions changed the world.
Ada Lovelace
The first geek on our list is a 19th-century English mathematician, regarded as the first-ever computer programmer. After becoming friends with mathematician Charles Babbage, who had designed the calculating machine called the “Difference Engine” and later developed the idea for the more advanced “Analytical Engine,” Ada Lovelace realized that the latter invention could carry out an extensive sequence of mathematical operations.
Her example of such a sequence—how to calculate Bernoulli numbers—is regarded by computer historians as the first-ever computer program. Ada’s contributions have not been forgotten: the Ada programming language was named after her and women’s contributions to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) are celebrated every year on Ada Lovelace Day.
Valerie Thomas
Valerie Thomas developed an interest in technology as a child and went on to be one of two women who graduated with a degree in physics from Morgan State University. She was hired by NASA following her graduation, where she managed image processing systems and oversaw the development of "Landsat," the first satellite ever to send images from space.
She went on to create the Illusion Transmitter, which could reproduce an image at a remote site using parabolic mirrors. This technology was subsequently adopted by NASA and has since been adapted for use in surgery and the production of television and video screens.
Roberta Williams
Roberta Williams found success in a male-dominated industry: video games. She is one of the most influential PC game designers of the 1980s and 1990s, most famous for creating graphic adventure games such as Mystery House, the King's Quest series, and Phantasmagoria.
She also co-founded the video game developer and publisher Sierra On-Line, the name of which was later changed to Sierra Entertainment.
Shirley Ann Jackson
The first African-American woman to earn a doctorate from MIT university, theoretical physicist Shirley Ann Jackson spent her career researching and teaching about particle physics, the branch of physics which uses theories and mathematics to predict the existence of subatomic particles and the forces that bind them together.
Her breakthrough scientific research at AT&T Bell Laboratories on subatomic particles enabled others to go on to invent the portable fax, the touch-tone telephone, solar cells, fiber optic cables, and the technology behind caller ID and call waiting. In 1995, President Bill Clinton appointed her as chairwoman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. She instituted massive crackdowns on the nuclear power industry's violations.
Stephanie Kwolek
American chemist Stephanie Kwolek’s groundbreaking polymer research resulted in the invention of Kevlar, a material that is five times stronger than steel and is used in bulletproof vests, bicycle tires, racing sails, frying pans, armored cars, musical instruments, and construction.
Kwolek won numerous awards for her work in polymer chemistry, including the National Medal of Technology, the IRI Achievement Award, and the Perkin Medal. In 1995, she became the fourth woman to be added to the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
Hedy Lamarr
Hedy Lamarr was an Austrian-American actress and inventor who pioneered frequency-hopping technology, a precursor to the secure wi-fi, GPS, and Bluetooth communication systems used today by billions of people around the world.
Known for her roles in the Oscar-nominated films Algiers and Sampson and Delilah, Lamarr filed the patent for her invention, which was created at the beginning of World War II to enable radio communications to ‘hop’ from one frequency to another so that Allied torpedoes couldn’t be detected by the Nazis, in 1941 with co-inventor George Antheil. Recognition of the value of their work resulted in the pair being posthumously inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2014.
Rosalind Franklin
Rosalind Franklin was an English chemist and X-ray crystallographer who made a crucial contribution to the discovery of the double-helix structure of DNA. However, her role in this discovery has been completely overlooked, with Francis Crick, James Watson, and Maurice Wilkins winning the Nobel prize for it after Franklin had died from ovarian cancer aged 37.
After working on DNA, she led pioneering work at Birkbeck on the molecular structures of viruses.
Lizzie Magie
Board games are often associated with geek culture–picture the Stranger Things boys playing Dungeons & Dragons in their basement. However, do you know the story behind the creation of the most iconic board game of all time? Elizabeth Magie, known to her friends as Lizzie, was a stenographer with progressive political views.
In 1904, she filed a patent for a board game she had created called “The Landlord’s Game”. The game was a protest against the big monopolists of her time–people like Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller. “It is a practical demonstration of the present system of land-grabbing with all its usual outcomes and consequences,” she wrote in a 1902 issue of the Single Tax Review.
Three decades later, the Parker Brothers would begin manufacturing a version of her game called Monopoly, with a man named Charles Darrow credited as the inventor. Darrow had been introduced to The Landlord’s Game by friends and went on to make millions from selling his capitalistic version of the original. The truth behind Monopoly’s invention and its left-wing origins was uncovered by accident in 1973 by Ralph Anspach, an economics professor, who discovered Magie’s patents.
Marie Curie
Polish-born French physicist Marie Curie is famous for her work on radioactivity, having laid out a theory of radioactivity, techniques for isolating radioactive isotopes, and the discovery of two elements–polonium and radium–by the age of 44.
She was the first person in history to win two Nobel Prizes and the only person to win twice in multiple sciences.
Mae Jemison
Mae Jemison is an engineer, physician, and former NASA astronaut. She became the first Black woman to travel into space when she served as a mission specialist aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour. She orbited the Earth for nearly eight days in 1992 during the STS-47 mission.
Prior to joining NASA, Jemison graduated from Stanford University with degrees in chemical engineering and African and African-American studies. She later earned a medical degree from Cornell University.
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