Women inventors who sought manufacturing partners faced the same gender-based skepticism that Mary Kenner faced alongside her race-based rejection.

The World War II era brought a temporary expansion of women’s participation in technical fields, as the absence of men in military service created labor shortages that were filled by women workers.

The women who entered industrial and technical fields during the war acquired skills and knowledge that many would use after the war, including inventive work.

But the postwar period saw significant pressure on women to return to domestic roles, and the gains of the war years were partially reversed.

It was in this postwar context that Mary Kenner was filing her first patent application — for the sanitary belt — in the 1950s.