Did You Know These Inventions Were Created By Women?
Kevlar Creator Stephanie Kwolek Didn’t Directly Benefit Financially From Her Invention
Photo credit: Stephen Morton/Getty Images
American chemist Stephanie Kwolek was born to Polish immigrants. She started working at DuPont in 1946. In 1965, when she was in her forties, DuPont asked her to identify a group of fibers that could perform in extreme circumstances. Through experimentation, she developed very strong and stiff synthetic fibers.
The substance was five times stronger than steel by weight. One of the most well-known byproducts from her experiment was Kevlar, which is a material common in military and police vests as well as boats, airplanes, and ropes. Her discovery made billions for DuPont, but she didn’t directly benefit from her invention at all.
