What about Hedy?

I thought this would be the simplest post, but it's not.

I left one note about Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story, a 2017 documentary about the actress and inventor.

"I wish she could have just done science."

She was really brilliant, but she was discouraged from pursuing that because she was a woman. Then, as a beautiful and famous one, we would rather you use your influence to sell war bonds than give us this frequency hopping technology for torpedoes.

Her worst problems in life seemed to come from her husbands, but after the sixth divorce she stayed single for thirty-five years and that didn't fix everything.

Plus, she was the one to initially pursue acting. I think she would have liked to do both.

It was the acting that drew the attention of her first husband, the controlling arms dealer who didn't let her act anymore. It was also through that marriage that she got some of the early knowledge for the frequency-hopping idea.

Maybe if she had been in a technology path she would have come across that anyway, but would she have met a composer who added the technology for synchronizing player pianos? 

(Or would her work have been done on behalf of the Germans?) 

Her film career also allowed her to cross paths with Howard Hughes, who was very supportive of her inventing.

People are complicated.

Those complications cause a lot of the problems that other people will encounter, but there will be problems even under better circumstances. 

Then, regardless of the circumstances, it can be hard to untangle things later.

I wish things had been better for her, but even more I wish for better times now. 

So many women get pushed out of science and technology. They may do things now to encourage girls in STEM, but if they don't do anything about the men who will disregard and downplay work, still credit, and harass women right out of the field, we are setting those girls up for failure.

We are also setting ourselves up for failure through the knowledge and skills that get lost.

Hedy Lamarr got to do more science than a lot of people; there's something to be said for being grateful for what you have.

That's not a reason to stop hoping for better.