Wonder Women: Celebrating Female Heroes of STEM

Hedy Lamarr: A Hollywood Icon’s Secret Life as an Inventor Shatters Stereotypes 

Remember the power suit? Pants and a matching jacket with bulky shoulder pads? Back in the 1980s, it was the look for women of ambition.

As I packed for my summer vacation and looked through my closet filled with pretty dresses, flouncy blouses, ruffled sleeves, and bright prints, I came across an old pant suit hidden all the way in the back: charcoal gray with those signature bulky shoulder pads.

I was at a much earlier point in my career when I wore it, and I had a closet full of pant suits. The fashion reflected, in part, a culture that told women that, to be successful, you had to look, act, and talk like a man. Whether at a job interview or a big meeting, you followed the unwritten rules: No dangling earrings, no bright lipstick, no open-toed shoes, clothes in muted colors. To be what, traditionally, was considered feminine in dress, behavior or manner, was to be dismissed as frivolous.

Thank goodness, Hedy Lamarr never got that memo.

Hollywood legend, screen goddess, the world’s most beautiful woman decades before PEOPLE magazine made the term famous, Lamarr was an instant sensation with her 1938 debut in Algiers. Beneath the glamorous exterior, however, was the brilliant, inventive mind of a scientist whose signature accomplishment—a frequency-skipping radio signal that would change the field of wireless communications as a precursor of today’s Wi-Fi technology—marks its 75th anniversary on August 11. Along the way, Lamarr would shatter just about every stereotype about femininity, beauty, intelligence, and scientific achievement with a confidence that holds lessons for us all, but especially for women in STEM.

The Austrian-born Lamarr had left an unhappy marriage when she got her big Hollywood break: an introduction to Louis Mayer of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios. Buying a ticket on the boat Mayer was taking back to the United States from Europe, she negotiated a seven-year-contract at $3,000 a week, then an eyebrow-raising salary for an unknown, foreign-born starlet. Fame came quickly, and Lamarr would go on to make more than 20 Hollywood films. But her roles rarely required her to do more than look beautiful, and she looked for other outlets to channel her intelligence and industrious spirit.

With no formal training, Lamarr took up invention as a hobby. Sitting at a drafting table, she devised plans for a better-functioning traffic stoplight and a water-soluble tablet that produced a Coca Cola-like soda. “She was constantly looking at the world and thinking, ‘How could that be fixed, how could that be improved?’” Richard Rhodes, author of the biography, Hedy’s Folly: The Life and Breakthrough Inventions of Hedy Lamarr, told NPR.

But Lamarr’s most important invention was inspired by the American war effort. Eager to help her adopted country defeat the Nazis, Lamarr teamed up with her friend and co-inventor, the composer George Antheil. Together, utilizing player piano mechanics, they designed a “frequency-hopping” radio technology to help radio-guided U.S. missiles avoid detection by German submarines. The pair patented their “Secret Communications System” on August 11, 1942 and gave it to the U.S. Navy.

Regrettably, a full two decades passed before Lamarr’s genius invention was finally put to use. In 1962, the U.S. Army employed the technology in military ships against a Cuban blockade. It made the greatest impact, however, in modern wireless communications where it helped lay the groundwork for the Bluetooth, GPS and secure Wi-Fi technology in use today.

Lamarr’s story has all the drama of a Hollywood movie. But her example has important lessons for young women aspiring to careers in STEM, lessons I have lived and learned throughout my career.

• Challenge stereotypes. As both a glamorous actress and genius inventor, Lamarr’s story makes us rethink our own tendency to label scientists as misfits or nerds with no fashion sensibilities. Lamarr’s example shows you can be brainy and beautiful, a scientist and an artist, a CEO and a fashionista.
• Recognize that being different is a strength: Of course, it can be difficult to walk into a room as the only woman or person of color. I am often the only woman, not to mention the only Indian woman, in a room full of men. But over time, I have come to realize that being different is a strength: it means that you are differentiated. Lamarr was proof that unique experiences and diverse background give you so much more to offer.  
• Be confident in your value. Studies have shown men consistently overrate their skills while women consistently underrate theirs. Lamarr knew what she was worth when she went toe-to-toe with Louis Mayer to get a better deal for herself. And that was in 1941! By being my authentic self, and surrounding myself with positive people who encouraged me, I came to recognize there’s a power in being unique.
• Speak up. Some people, including well-meaning ones, may underestimate you because of the way you look or their own hidden biases. These are the vestiges of centuries old biases, and much still must change in science and business to create a level playing field, but you can play a major role in changing it by making your voice heard. In situations where I have felt unconscious or conscious bias, I’ve found that, within three seconds of opening my mouth and making my voice heard, the bias lifts and people appreciate me for my ideas, creativity, humor, and seriousness of purpose. Point made.

And what of my business pant suits? Well, that fashion trend passed, as fashion trends do. I think I’ve gotten rid of all mine, except for the errant one still hanging in the back of my closet. Maybe I will keep it to remind me of how far we have come. I now enjoy wearing bright colors, lipstick, and outfits that express my personality, while keeping to office decorum. It’s fine to look nice, provided that’s not all you do. Hedy Lamarr understood that better than anyone.