Her specific design did not ultimately define the category, though her work was part of the broader wave of innovation in this product area during the mid-twentieth century.

This complicates the story of her invention in ways that honest history requires acknowledging.

Kenner did not invent the modern sanitary pad.

Her patent was for a specific improvement to the belt-and-holder system that was then in use, and the market ultimately moved in a different direction.

Her contribution to the development of menstrual products is real and significant, but it is not the simple “she invented what we use today” narrative that is sometimes attributed to her in popular accounts.

What she did invent was a genuine improvement to a product that millions of women were using, and what she experienced was the specific injustice of racial discrimination preventing that improvement from reaching the market for nearly two decades.