Never Sell A Woman Short No Matter How Tall She Is

The other day I was talking to a female co-worker and I offhandedly referred to my wife as “The Boss”. 

This co-worker then wondered that if I really thought my spouse was “The Boss” and if so, what was my role in our relationship. Then I said, “I’m the leader”. This co-worker asked me to elaborate the terms that I used.     

Firstly, I explained that the leader makes the big decisions like who should be President, how do we fix global warming, what is the next planet that we visit, with whom do we go to war next with, etc.

The Boss makes the smaller decisions like where we go, where we eat out, whom we visit, what we buy, etc. I explained that our symbiotic relationship was a life-long partnership based on mutual love and respect, unified safety, cohesiveness under pressure and survival.

It is much like an Alaskan Iditarod trail dogsled. I am the leader, getting our family pack to pull together in all kinds of weather and follow me into the fray. She is the Boss, plotting our course, pointing us in the correct direction and spurring us on from behind (Mush, Mookie, Mush!).

According to this co-worker, I am one of a select few that she knows of in the male gender that seems to give credit where credit is due, especially when it comes to women. I feel that strong, bright, inventive, forward thinking women have been around for decades and that not everyone is like Cleopatra, Mina Edison, Mary Todd Lincoln, Eva Braun or Kim Kardashian.

Great ladies like Betsy Ross, Harriet Tubman or Eleanor Roosevelt are not as rare as you would think. Years ago, my son came home from a history class at East Meadow High School and told me a very appropriate story about a lady named Mary Anderson that I never heard of.

Mary Anderson must have been quite a woman way back in the early 1900’s. Women weren't allowed to do many official things back then. They could not vote, hold public office, attend college for certain degrees or serve in the active military. They were still wearing long dresses that hid their sexy ankles and did what was expected of them in a male dominated world.

After all, the men in their lives had long ago decided women were put on this planet for making babies, doing laundry and cooking meals and similar tasks. But Mary Anderson, (not to be confused with a labor organizer of the same name, but rather a Southern Alabama aristocrat), showed them she had the drive and ambition to accomplish something fantastic in a world where men were the thinkers and doers and women supported them from the rear.  

As it happens, during a trip to New York City, Mary Anderson, the ever observant socialite, noticed that streetcar drivers had to open the windows of their vehicles when it rained in order to see, this seemed to be a dangerous safety hazard for an abundance of reasons. Mary figured that there had to be a better and safer way to accomplish this task. So when she got to her hotel room, she called the front desk and requested a pen and paper. Many wealthy ladies of that time were educated enough to read and write, but none were engineers and knew measurements, except possibly when associated with sewing and quilting.

As a solution to this problem Mary Anderson of Alabama, designed a swinging arm device with a rubber blade that was operated by the driver from within the vehicle via a lever. Her invention was strong and durable enough that it could clean snow, rain, or even icy sleet from any windshield by using a handle inside the vehicle. Her goal was to improve driver vision during stormy weather because she was accustomed to riding in relative safety in Alabama with little snow and sleet. Her first prototype was on tried on fire trucks and ambulances in Montgomery, AL. Mary Anderson’s windshield wipers became standard equipment on all American cars by 1916.

Another woman inventor named Charlotte Bridgewood, who often mistakenly is given credit for Mary Anderson’s initial idea, actually invented the first automatic windshield wiper. Charlotte Bridgewood, president of the Bridgewood Manufacturing Company of New York, patented her electric roller-based windshield wiper close to 15 years later, based on the premise and initial designs of a former Alabama debutant.

Nevertheless, these were two more great women, that were to be added list of great women contributors to American Society and the world, that came before and after their impacts. Some of you may not think they’re on the same scale as say, Marie Curie... but just wait for the next time you are driving to work in the rain and you will.