Patently female

The typical image of an inventor is of a man working alone in his laboratory (which will be something of a mess) thinking up devices which no one has thought of before. In Patently Female Ethlie Ann Vare and Greg Ptacek continue their challenge, started in Mothers of Invention, to this gender stereotype.

Thus we quickly find out about all sorts of things which have been invented by women - liquid paper, vacuum canning, the paper bag making machine and lots and lots more. The book has chapters on inventions relating to medicine, and to agriculture and the environment. There are also chapters on games invented by women and on inventions devised by schoolgirls. And predictably there are inventions related to things which have traditionally been done by women such as housework - it will probably be no surprise that a woman invented the pedal-opened trash can.

But the book didn't entirely shake my image of the lone male inventor in his lab, particularly if you are thinking about the 'mad inventor' type of person. For one thing the authors seemed too cast their net too widely sometimes, including scientists and computer programmers rather than strictly inventors. Also, although the authors point out that often a man gets more credit than he should, I can't help feeling that the case of the Bissell carpet sweeper may be ilumminating here - Mrs Bissell ran the company which sold it for a long while, but it was Mr Bissell who originally built it, thus earning the title of inventor.

So in the end I would say that you will get the most from this book if you ignore the 'Battle of the Sexes' element, and just concentrate on some of the fascinating stories of how some of the things we know so well came into being.