History is full of amazing women who have been ignored or forgotten.  Women do so many things that no one hears about.

Mary Shelley pioneered science fiction. Maria Gaetana Agnesi wrote the first book discussing both differential and integral calculus. Amelia Earhart was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.

The fact that women invented nearly all the core technologies of civilizations isn’t just an uneducated feminist myth.

Anthropologists believe that women invented pottery, agriculture, weaving, textiles, and so much more. Without those things, men couldn’t have hunted or fished or carried things home to their family.

We’ll probably never know how many women inventors there were. That’s because in the early years of America, a woman could not get a patent in her own name. Windshield wipers, non reflecting glass, fireproof building materials, x-rays, monopoly, and kevlar are just a few examples of important and necessary things that were invented by women.

No one knows because of the male-dominated world of science. Not to mention that a woman founded the first official university, Al-Qarawiyyin in Africa, in 859.

Sophie Germain, born in 1776, was a mathematician that had to work under a pseudonym because she was afraid that her work wouldn’t be taken seriously if people knew she was a woman.

J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series, shortened her name for the same reason that other women from other centuries did — their work would not be taken seriously under their given names.

The fact that it seems natural for women to feel as if they need to literally hide their gender is unfair, and unfortunately common. Even in modern story writing, John Green is hailed as the pioneer of the young adult literature genre, when in reality, he is simply riding on the coattails of women authors like Rowling, Lois Lowry and Stephenie Meyer, to name a few.

This trend of ignoring women’s accomplishments and often giving men cooperators full credit is harming the aspirations of young girls in the world.

They will be conditioned to believe that they can’t do certain things because of their gender.

But not everyone is oblivious to this harsh reality. A non-profit organization called Women Who Code is a program that inspires women to excel in technology careers.

The ACCESS program provides education and funding for women interested in science and mathematics.

Organizations that Educate Women is a program that is devoted to teaching young girls and women that are less fortunate, particularly in third world countries.

At this pace, society may start accepting women as something other than a lesser counterpart, and hopefully never again will we hear the phrase, “You’re pretty good at that for being a girl!”