Uploaded June 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
Some notes: I fact-checked a number of listed inventions but not all of them - very time-consuming. A great number of inventions are either co-inventions (featuring several countries) or simply an extra block placed atop a pillar of other blocks - other inventions. So who gets the credit? If someone conceptualizes a thing but never actually makes it (i.e. Da Vinci’s flying machine) does it count? I had to use my judgement on multiple occasions to determine the viability of including this or that inventor - but typically I added all of the persons listed in inventing something as co-inventors. For instance, multiple people from 3 different countries were involved in the incremental design of the safety razor: Jean-Jacques Perret, the Kampfe brothers, William Nickerson and Wilkinson Sword from France, Germany and England. All three countries each received a point for this.
This list is far from perfect and undoubtedly there are some blunders but I think overall the conclusion is accurate.
The results by continent are interesting:
Europe: 665
North America: 436
Asia: 154
Africa: 39
Oceania: 15
Antarctica: 0
And the vast majority of the inventors were male. I didn’t count all of them, but out of multiple lists leaving me with 1,089 inventions only 19 women were named: Ada Lovelace, Nancy Johnson, Sarah Mort, Margaret Knight, Josephine Cochrane, Herminie Cadolle, Mary Anderson, Ida Hyde, Marion Donovan, Lise Meitner, Bette Graham, Helen Barnett Diserens, Stephanie Kwoleck, Erna Schneider Hoover, Gertrude Elion, Patricia Bath , Joan L. Mitchell, Katalin Karikó and Margarita Marinova.
That amounts to 1.74 %.
Some notes: I fact-checked a number of listed inventions but not all of them - very time-consuming. A great number of inventions are either co-inventions (featuring several countries) or simply an extra block placed atop a pillar of other blocks - other inventions. So who gets the credit? If someone conceptualizes a thing but never actually makes it (i.e. Da Vinci’s flying machine) does it count? I had to use my judgement on multiple occasions to determine the viability of including this or that inventor - but typically I added all of the persons listed in inventing something as co-inventors. For instance, multiple people from 3 different countries were involved in the incremental design of the safety razor: Jean-Jacques Perret, the Kampfe brothers, William Nickerson and Wilkinson Sword from France, Germany and England. All three countries each received a point for this.
This list is far from perfect and undoubtedly there are some blunders but I think overall the conclusion is accurate.
The results by continent are interesting:
Europe: 665
North America: 436
Asia: 154
Africa: 39
Oceania: 15
Antarctica: 0
And the vast majority of the inventors were male. I didn’t count all of them, but out of multiple lists leaving me with 1,089 inventions only 19 women were named: Ada Lovelace, Nancy Johnson, Sarah Mort, Margaret Knight, Josephine Cochrane, Herminie Cadolle, Mary Anderson, Ida Hyde, Marion Donovan, Lise Meitner, Bette Graham, Helen Barnett Diserens, Stephanie Kwoleck, Erna Schneider Hoover, Gertrude Elion, Patricia Bath , Joan L. Mitchell, Katalin Karikó and Margarita Marinova.
That amounts to 1.74 %.
