Women in Tech
…and their frequently ignored stories
As a woman, and as a person with a multi-racial background, diversity and inclusivity is a major area of concern. After hearing a recent Big Technology Podcast where former Microsoft board member Maria Klawe asked Bill Gates why Microsoft wouldn’t consider a single woman (in a cast of 50 potential succession candidates for the then-CEO) and his response was “Are you f — king trying to destroy the company?”, it occurs to me that I need to play more of an active role in trying to encourage other women to enter STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields and make our voices and concerns heard.
According to the 2017 Women in STEM update, “Women filled 47 percent of all U.S. jobs in 2015 but held only 24 percent of STEM jobs. Likewise, women constitute more slightly more than half of college-educated workers but make up only 25 percent of college-educated STEM workers.”
Personally, my interest in STEM fields started when I was young, being raised in the 90s very aware of the burgeoning internet, and with a software developer father (and a former programmer analyst mother). I was very lucky to live in a part of the country that had a good public school system and was exposed to science and mathematics at a very young age. I quickly decided I wanted to be an astronaut (that went out the window pretty quickly) but have eventually landed myself as a participant in the tech industry.
I’m very proud to be in the tech industry, but I definitely don’t see myself surrounded by very many examples of other women in my field. Per research done by the Equality of Opportunity Project, giving young girls exposure to female inventors “has the potential to reduce the gender gap in technical STEM fields by half.” I wanted to write this article to learn and teach some about just a few of the many female contributors to the technology industry over time.
Ada Lovelace (1815–1852)
She’s so monumental they’ve dubbed every second Tuesday in October Ada Lovelace Day. This is meant to celebrate women's achievements in STEM fields.
Ada Lovelace was the sole child of Lord and Lady Byron, Lord Byron being known as a prominent English politician and poet. She didn’t have a real relationship with her father, but she was a mathematician and writer herself. Lovelace had a great interest in the Analytical Machine, a theoretical machine designed by Charles Babbage. She was the first to realize the potential of the machine to make computations beyond calculations and created the first algorithm for such a machine. Because of this, she is often thought of as the first computer programmer.
Lovelace had a short life of 36 years and was frequently ill throughout. Regardless of her illnesses, she had a very unique perspective coming at science with a poetic and imaginative mind. Her desire to question basic assumptions of maths and science led to forward-thinking ideas.
Annie Easley (1933–2011)
Easley was brought up before the Civil Rights Movement and despite all of the adversity she faced, she became valedictorian of her high school class and went on to study pharmacy at Xavier University in New Orleans (shout out to my city) for two years.
Easley ended up moving to Cleveland with her then-husband to be near to his family and was unable to continue her education in pharmacy. Upon reading about two twin sisters who were “human computers” at the nearby NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics — a predecessor of NASA) Center, she promptly applied for a job and became one of four African American employees out of their 2500 total.
Honestly, Annie Easley just blows my mind as a role model. Not only did she go on to work as a computer scientist, mathematician, and rocket scientist for NACA, but also led the team which developed software for the Centaur rocket stage and developed code that led to the battery used in hybrid cars. She eventually went back to Cleveland State while working full-time, earning her degree in mathematics went on to additional take on the role of EEO (Equal Employment Opportunity) Counselor, helping to address issues of gender, race, and age discrimination. She was also one of the first female workers to wear pants and paved the way for other women’s rights in the workplace. The IAU named one of the moon’s craters was named after Easley in February.
Mary Wilkes (1937-present)
During Mary Wilkes’s childhood, she was encouraged by a teacher to be a computer programmer when she grew up. Surely enough, Wilkes went on to work at MIT programming two IBM computers, the IBM 704 and 709. She was notably the first user of a personal computer in her own home while working on the LINC LAP6 operating system, which she developed and had many interactive capabilities. She is quoted saying, “I’ll bet you don’t have a computer in your living room.” which was definitely a good bet at the time.
I’m also a big fan of her quote, “We had the quaint notion at the time that software should be completely, absolutely free of bugs. Unfortunately, it’s a notion that never really quite caught on.” Hard to think of truer things said.
Wilkes did eventually leave the computer sciences in 1972 and received her law degree from Harvard. Don’t fret, she did still focus on cases involving computer science and information technologies with the American Arbitration Association.
Summing It Up
Hopefully, you’ve learned something about these stand-out women in technology as I have while spending the time to research them. I hope to revisit this article later on and to add more information. Please let me know some of your favorite women in tech so I can add them to the list! And finally, please encourage the women in your life to pursue their interests, whatever they may be.
