Microdose: Women and Technology With Katrine Marçal

Throughout history, countless good ideas have been side-lined or dismissed because they were put forward by women.

That’s the frustration which motivates historian Katrine Marçal, who delves into her myth-busting research for a Microdose all about technology’s missed turnings.

With ACFM host Nadia Idle, the author of Mother of Invention: How Good Ideas Get Ignored in an Economy Built for Men and Who Cooked Adam Smith’s Dinner? lays out some of the questions and frustrations she’s encountered in her studies. For instance, why did it take 5,000 years to put wheels on a suitcase? Why was the electric car rejected as too feminine when it was first conceived, a century ago? And how come all the early computer programmers and coders were women?

Look out for the next ACFM Trip on technology with Nadia, Jeremy Gilbert and Keir Milburn, landing in a few days.

Produced by Matt Huxley and Chal Ravens.