Hedy Lamarr: Not Just a Pretty Face
November 9th is Inventors' Day, marking the birthday of Hedy Lamarr a famous Hollywood glamour girl of the 1940's, who is now recognized as one of the leading women inventors of the 20th century.
"Any girl can be glamorous," Hedy Lamarr once said. "All she has to do is stand still and look stupid." The film star belied her own apothegm by hiding a brilliant, inventive mind beneath her photogenic exterior. In 1942, at the height of her Hollywood career, she patented a frequency-switching system for torpedo guidance that was two decades ahead of its time.
We've still got a ways to go when it comes to removing gender stereotypes, but we've come a long way, baby. It's encouraging, today, to see fashion magazines recognize women for their brains, not just their beauty. This week, Glamour magazine named Google's Marissa Mayer a 2009 Woman of the Year.
“It’s pretty hard to overstate her impact,” says Google CEO Eric Schmidt. “She built the team that designs the products we all use.” With a wardrobe that’s strong on Oscar de la Renta and Armani, Mayer cuts a striking figure on the company campus. “When people think about computer science, they imagine people with pocket protectors and thick glasses who code all night,” Mayer jokes. “I do code all night! I am the stereotype, but I also break the stereotype.” Among her goals: to bring more women into technology and teach them to take chances. “Get in a bit over your head,” she says. “That’s how you grow and learn and stretch yourself.”
These are important life lessons for our children and, as the father of three young girls and an author of children's books that dispel gender stereotypes, I'll be telling stories about women like Marissa Mayer, Hedy Lamarr, and other famous women inventors. For our girls, these women are real-world superheroes.
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