Ingenious Women: From Tincture of Saffron to Flying Machines

by Deborah Jaffé

Examines inventions and discoveries made by women, beginning with the first patent application made in 1637 and ending with the outbreak of war in 1914.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Science, Feminism, Womens

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 25, 2004

Reviews

[Apina_lukee_kirjoja · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book was interesting and easy to read; and it is good to be reminded of the fact that women have always been active thinkers and inventors.

But where the book failed, was lack of context. It is basically just a list of approved patent applications with (bar a couple of exceptions) nothing about whether a particular invention was important, financially successful, lost, forgotten, stolen etc. For example, regarding the washing machine and dishwasher patents: are these the inventions that changed the world, or reworkings of a previous design, or a basis on which someone else built their more popular machine, or was the same idea later patented by a man to better response? None of this context is provided, and so the impact, apart from an inspirational example, is missed. I feel like these women would have deserved better.

[Sandra Ferrer Valero · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un libro muy curioso y entretenido que descubre inventos hechos por mujeres. Algunos que no trascendieron pero otros que utilizamos en la actualidad.
Me ha encantado

[Sarah Foxley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting enough but felt like a huge information dump with some linking text between each 'invention' so that it was slightly easier to read. Took me a while to read as it wasn't easy.