Mary Kenner had a flower shop.

Both were inventors; the conditions under which they worked were vastly different.

The Sanitary Belt and the Long Rejection

The invention that Mary Kenner is most associated with, and the one that represents both her greatest commercial contribution and her most painful rejection, was the sanitary belt with an attached moisture-proof napkin holder.

Menstrual products have a history that is longer, more complex, and more significant than they are usually given credit for.

The management of menstruation was for most of human history accomplished through improvised means — folded cloth, wadded fabric, various homemade arrangements that were often ineffective, uncomfortable, and socially constrained by the profound cultural taboo surrounding the subject.