With all of the running around I have been doing recently, I have left my Ada Lovelace pledge until the last minute unfortunately. But I have been spending a lot of my time recently working with women in business and I know all of us suffer from the problem of having too much to do, not enough time to do it in, and worries over what we let slip. Well, today’s exemplary woman in technology is one that proves that you can be clever, beautiful, and successfully achieve two very different careers.
I knew of the actress Hedy Lamarr from watching old films of the 1930s and 1940s. I have always loved the glamour of those films – the women are all so unblemished and beautiful and Lamarr was a particular favourite. You can imagine my surprise when I discovered that Lamarr was probably the archetype of ‘brains, body, both’ (thank you George Hrab).
As well as playing Delilah, it turns out that Hedy spent her spare time inventing a communication system which was to evolve into modern spread-spectrum communication technology, used in wi-fi connections and wireless telephones. The system, presented as a secret communication system based on frequency hopping during the Second World War was way ahead of its time. In fact, despite it being granted a patent in 1942, it actually wasn’t implemented until the 1960s. Lamarr’s contribution to this frequency hopping technology was only commemorated with an award in 1997. She died in 2000.
I think Hedy Lamarr should be placed on a pedestal at a time where apparently the only talents that celebrity women have is to look pretty and sound stupid (yes, I am overgeneralising, but anyone who knows me knows how little time I have for celebrities). In fact, Lamarr herself famously quoted:
“Any girl can be glamourous. All you have to do is stand still and look stupid”
Fortunately, she proved that a girl can also be glamourous and have a sharp mind and a good brain. I would like to see more women following her model rather than her words. Perhaps we will see more visible women in technology who do as much for the industry as they do for womenkind themselves.
Happy Ada Lovelace Day.
Thanks to BooBooGBs for the image
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Tags: Hedy Lamarr
