Feminine Ingenuity: How Women Inventors Changed America (Paperback)

by Anne Macdonald (Author) "Although women have invented since the beginning of time, it seems as if full recognition of their role has been painfully slow..." (more)
Key Phrases: domestic perimeters, woman patentee, woman inventor, New York, Patent Office, United States (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal
YA-- Since Mary Kies (inventor of a straw-weaving process for hat making) became the first female patentee in 1809, American women have developed an astonishingly wide range of devices and products, from pyrotechnic night signals, the Snugli, and brassieres, to Stove Top Stuffing and the anti-herpes drug Zovirax. Limited solely to those who applied for and were granted patents, this well-documented chronology describes not only the inventions themselves, but also the social milieu, the setbacks, and the successes of the women who designed them. By choosing this informative format, MacDonald has done more than merely tell the story of a lot of inventions; she has penned a readable and unique social history of American women. Frequent quotations from diaries, letters, and other documents along with numerous black-and-white illustrations make this book an excellent resource.
- Carolyn E. Gecan, Thomas Jefferson Sci-Tech, Fairfax County, VA
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews
Macdonald (No Idle Hands, 1988) presents a sprightly, informative chronicle of women inventors in America--a two-steps- forward/one-and-a-half-steps-back history that aptly mirrors the rise and fall of feminist movements over two centuries. American females owe their start in inventing, Macdonald says, to the Patent Act of 1790, created by a new Congress eager to encourage technological progress and to open the patent system to all--including women--on an equal basis. Soon, despite the formidable social, economic, and psychological barriers that remained, patent applications from women began to trickle in. Inventions sprang, naturally, from the environments in which the inventors found themselves--the vast majority of patents for women's inventions were granted for household items, gynecological products, and fashion innovations--though, particularly during wars, when more women ran farms and business, female-invented technical devices useful in agriculture and in battle (including milking machines and periscopes) won patents as well. Macdonald, who herself has received a patent for a knitting device, exhibits humor and empathy when describing others' applications (``spiritualism'' fads led to claims by some that inventions first appeared in divine visions; other applicants, hoping to speed up the slow application process, bombarded the patent office with pleas of poverty or boasts about their products' popularity). She draws prescient parallels between advances by women inventors, who grasped at the right to their own intellectual property long before they won the right to any other, and the state of feminism in their times. But as of 1988, Macdonald says, the percentage of patents granted to women had climbed to a mere 5.6--an apt example, she suggests, of how far the feminist movement still has to go. Captivating history--a stimulating, highly readable contribution to women's studies. (Black-and-white illustrations throughout.) -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 540 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books; 1st Trade Paperback Ed edition (February 8, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345383141
• ISBN-13: 978-0345383143
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,291,497 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars a good start, February 10, 2007

By	C. C. Watt "crazy movie lover" (Riverside, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book does explore contributions by women to American engineering and invention, but it seems to focus on women as wives and helpers of inventors and/or on women who invented "feminine" things like gadgets for sewing and cooking. Few of the women profiled seemed to work in the "hard" sciences.

The prose is not terribly exciting or energetic. I would recommend this book to readers interested in feminism or invention, but I would encourage them to find other sources as well.