Hedy Lamarr's Impact On The STEM Field

The number of women in STEM has drastically increased over the past century. The World Wars greatly contributed to this by exposing women to new job opportunities and giving them access to new technologies in the workforce. This allowed women to create new inventions to help the war effort, thus increasing the number of women in the field of STEM. Hedy Lamarr, an actress in Hollywood, became one of those inventors who assisted the war effort. By creating new wartime technology, she defied the stereotype that female actresses were unintelligent. Although Hedy Lamarr is most known for her beauty and successful Hollywood career, she had made a lasting impact on the STEM field by inventing the spread spectrum using frequency hopping for the military

First, she observed that the speed of planes needed to be improved. To solve this problem, she researched which birds fly the fastest and which fish swam the fastest. In both cases, she discovered that these birds and fishes’ appendages were in the shape of books. She took this information and sketched a new design for a wing that made planes faster. Her greatest invention was creating a communication system called the spread spectrum using frequency hopping. George Antheil, an American film score composer, helped co-invented the new technology. The system helped the U.S. Military accurately send torpedoes by a radio that jumped frequencies to stop jamming and enemy interference. The radio would be controlled by two paper rolls (Hughes and Hendricks). The Spread Spectrum was based on the eighty-eight frequencies of a piano. They received a patent for “The Secret Communication System.” The co-inventors decided to donate their invention to the Department of War; however, it was rejected. The military felt that the new system was too bulky to fit into a missile. Since the technology was new and innovative, many people rejected the invention as untrustworthy. In 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis, her frequency-hopping technology was used. Lamarr’s invention can be seen today in modern technology such as cell phones and radio transmissions. It is also the basis for the Milstar

She stood up against the standard set for women at the time. She shows me that as a woman, I can create change even if society attempts to dictate who I can be. I related to Hedy because she had a strong group of close friends and family that encouraged her dreams of inventing and acting. The Gwynedd community and my family support me in everything I do including academics and dancing. This provides opportunities for me to succeed just as Hedy did in her acting and STEM career. I think it’s fascinating that she was so well known for acting, but no one remembers how intelligent she was. I aspire to always use my intelligence to the fullest potential as Lamarr did. Hedy Lamar’s legacy shows women that they can create change no matter their profession or what society dictates as