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Author Marçal, Katrine, author.

Title Mother of invention : how good ideas get ignored in an economy built for men / Katrine Marçal ; translated by Alex Fleming.

Publication Info. New York, NY : Abrams Press, [2021]
©2021

Copies

Location Call No. Status
 Enfield, Main Library - Adult Department  604.82 MAR    Check Shelf
 Manchester, Main Library - Non Fiction  604.82 MARÇAL    Check Shelf
 Middletown, Russell Library - Adult Nonfiction  604.82 MAR    Check Shelf
 Newington, Lucy Robbins Welles Library - Adult Department  604.82 MARÇAL    Check Shelf
 Portland Public Library - Adult Department  604.82 MAR    Check Shelf
 Wethersfield Public Library - Non Fiction  158.1 MARCAL    Check Shelf
Description 296 pages : 24 cm
Note Translation of Att uppfinna världen from the Swedish.
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 285-296).
Summary The wheel was invented some 5,000 years ago, and the modern suitcase in the mid-nineteenth century, but it wasn't until the 1970s that someone successfully married the two. What was the hold up? For writer and journalist Katrine Marçal, the answer is both shocking and simple: because "real men" carried their bags, no matter how heavy. There were rolling suitcases before the '70s, but they were marketed as a niche product for (the presumably few) women travelling alone, and the wheeled suitcase wasn't "invented" until it was no longer threatening to masculinity. Mother of Invention draws on this example and many others, from electric cars to tech billionaires, to show how gender bias stifles the economy and holds us back. Our traditional notions about men and women have delayed innovations, sometimes by hundreds of years, and have distorted our understanding of our history. While we talk about the Iron Age and the Bronze Age, we might as well talk about the Ceramic Age or the Flax Age, since these technologies were just as important. But inventions associated with women are not considered to be technology in the same way. Marçal takes us on a tour of the global economy, arguing that gendered assumptions dictate which businesses get funding, how we value work, and how we trace human progress."-- Provided by publisher
Contents In which we invent the wheel and, after 5,000 years, manage to attach it to a suitcase -- In which we start the car without breaking out jaw -- In which bras and girdles take us to the moon -- In which we learn the difference between horsepower and girl power -- In which a great invention is made in Västerås, and we go on a whale hunt -- In which influencers get richer than hackers -- In which the black swan turns out to have a body -- In which Serena Williams beats Garry Kasparov -- In which we forget to ask about Mary -- In which we decide not to burn the world at the stake.
Subject Technology and women.
Technological innovations.
Inventions.
Women inventors.
Inventors.
Inventions. (OCoLC)fst00977993
Inventors. (OCoLC)fst00978052
Technological innovations. (OCoLC)fst01145002
Technology and women. (OCoLC)fst01145277
Women inventors. (OCoLC)fst01178065
Added Author Fleming, Alex (Translator), translator.
Added Title Att uppfinna världen. English
ISBN 1419758047
9781419758041
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