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Women in Computing: The Complete Documentation

• This category contains 13 Papers
• The last paper was added on 2007-03-26 (YYYY-MM-DD)

Fran Allen: from 'Fair Lady' to Fellow

Published on 2004, by IBM, ©IBM.

It's not over. It's just beginning, says Fran Allen reflecting on how the technology industry has changed since she joined IBM™ Research in 1957. Fran Allen was the first woman to be named IBM™ fellow -- IBM's highest technical honor -- in 1989, and today, nearly forty-five years after joining IBM™ , Fran Allen is transitioning from IBM™ fellow to Fellow Emeritus. Allen regards her recognition of IBM™ Fellow as a very high honor and achievement. She says, "It was an affirmation of the work I had been doing and the fact that the company had recognized it made me feel very, very good. It also meant that I could become a role model for women in a very specific way -- I think I already was, but it was a sort of endorsement for my role." In the early 1950's, Allen received a degree in Education from Albany State Teacher's College -- now known as the State University of New York at Albany. She then attended the University of Michigan, where she earned an MA in mathematics. Brochures, entitled My Fair Ladies were distributed to women on campus in a recruitment effort to entice women technologists to join IBM™. When Allen was offered this opportunity, she took advantage of it in an effort to save money and pay off student loans. However, what she intended to be a temporary arrangement became a 45-year career at IBM™ Research.

Ada Byron, Lady Lovelace

Published on 2000, by Larry Riddle, ©Agnes Scott College.

Ada Byron, Lady Lovelace, was one of the most picturesque characters in computer history. Augusta Ada Byron was born December 10, 1815 the daughter of the illustrious poet, Lord Byron. Five weeks after Ada was born Lady Byron asked for a separation from Lord Byron, and was awarded sole custody of Ada who she brought up to be a mathematician and scientist. Lady Byron was terrified that Ada might end up being a poet like her father. Despite Lady Byron's programming Ada did not sublimate her poetical inclinations. She hoped to be an analyst and a metaphysician. In her 30's she wrote her mother, if you can't give me poetry, can't you give me poetical science? Her understanding of mathematics was laced with imagination, and described in metaphors.

Ada Lovelace

Published on 2004-03-06, by Wikipedia, ©Wikipedia.

Ada Byron King (December 10, 1815 - November 27, 1852) is mainly known for having written a description of Charles Babbage's early mechanical general-purpose computer, the analytical engine.

Augusta Ada Byron

Published on 2000, by Simon Fraser University, ©Simon Fraser University.

Augusta Ada Byron was born December 10, 1815 in a house overlooking London's Green Park. Her mother, Anna Isabella Millbanke, had been married to Lord Byron a little more than a year when their daughter was born. It is said that their marriage was stormy. Byron, an illustrious poet, was very tempermental, passionate, and somewhat crazed. Annabella, an amateur mathematician, on the other hand was calm and collected. Ada was raised in the country by devoted parents who had been married for fifteen years. However, after Ada was born Lord Byron found the marriage to be increasingly hard and almost unbearable. Seeing the marriage was on the rocks and adoring her child completely, Lady Byron asked for a seperation from Lord Byron when Ada was five weeks old. From that day on Ada was raised by her mother. Lord Byron was never to see his daughter again. He died in Greece in 1824 when Ada was eight years old. Although Ada could not have known her father well it must be noted that many similarities existed between them. Physically, they both had fine features and good looks. Both died young at exactly the same age- 36. Throughout their lives both had great accomplishments, but also periods of scandal and disgrace.

Augusta Ada King, countess of Lovelace

Published on , by JJ O'Connor and EF Robertson, ©University of St Andrews.

Augusta Ada Byron's father was the famous poet Lord George Gordon Byron and her mother was Anne Isabelle Milbanke. Ada's parents married on 2 January 1815 but separated on 16 January 1816, a month after she was born. On 25 April 1816 Lord Byron went abroad and Ada never saw her father again. Lord Byron never returned to England and died in Greece when Ada was eight years old. Lady Byron was given sole custody of her daughter Ada, who was declared a Ward in Chancery in April 1817, and she tried to do everything possible in bring up her child to ensure that she would not become a poet like her father.

Free Software and women: are we strategic enough?

Published on 2005-03-07, by Christina Haralanova, ©Women's Information Technology Transfer.

There is no doubt: new technologies, and especially the use of free software, are a challenge for the whole society. To be more powerful, women need to learn to use these tools in their work.

It is not just about pushing buttons, but about managing the situation. Women are not aware that there is digital freedom. They see technology as something separate, not as something that complements their main work: activism and the protection of rights, says Milica Gudovic, a feminist from Belgrade, working for Zene na Delu.

Game industry’s 100 most influential women

Published on 2006-09-11, by Fiona Cherbak, ©Future Network USA. .

In advance of this week’s Women in Games International conference in Seattle, The Balancing Act: Game Industry Careers and Quality of Life, we are pleased to present our choices for the "top 100 women in games" to our readership.

While it is a known fact that the ratio of women to men working in the games industry is remarkably off-kilter, it is unclear what this data truly means to the game community. One widely-supported idea is that, by including the viewpoint and talents of women in the game development process, nothing is left to chance in terms of looking at the big picture.

Links to various sites of interest:

• Women in games international.

Geek Chicks: Second thoughts

Published on 2000-05-02, by Kirrily "Skud" Robert, ©Open Source Technology Group.

Today's editorial comes from Skud, a member of freshmeat's Australian staff. She describes it as: Some deeper thoughts about geek chicks. I wrote this because, on re-reading my earlier article, I realized how insanely sleep-deprived and incoherent I was when I wrote it. And because it was loooong after I should have gone home and I got talking about this with one of the tech support guys over a diet coke...

Getting Girls Interested in Computers

Published on 2001, by Cynthia Lanius, ©Cynthia Lanius.

Although the numbers and percentages of science and engineering bachelor's degrees awarded to women in most fields are increasing, they have decreased drastically in computer science. Degrees awarded in computer science decreased among both men and women from 1985 to 1995, and women went from earning 36% of those degrees in 1985 to only 28% in 1995. A full report on these statistics was published by the National Science Foundation.

The immediate future looks no more promising. Only 17% of the high school students who took the Advanced Placement Computer Science test in 1999 were females - the lowest percentage of all tests given. AB Calculus is up to 47%, Chemistry is 42%, Biology is 56%, and Physics, although still dismal, is over 20%. Complete data was published by the College Board.

Not every hacker is a woman

Published on 2002, by Cornelia Sollfrank, ©Cornelia Sollfrank.

According to the research of Randall Nichols , president of the computer security company Comsec Solutions, the typical hacker is a young (19-30 years old) white male without any previous convictions. The hacker identifies with technology rather than with his employer. He is smart, intelligent, self-confident, thirsting for adventure, highly motivated, and likes to take up challenges. But, in the 8,000 cases of computer crime investigated by Nichols, there was not a single woman involved. According to him, this finding leads to two conclusions: either women are actually not involved in computer crime, or women are too cunning to get caught! In any case, women hackers don't show up - neither in the media, nor in any (crime) statistics. Where technology is traditionally seen as a male domain, I found the province of hackers a highly gendered zone-one of the last stands of the boys' club. But I still had hope to be able to correct this unpleasant finding and started a research. The following catalogues my hunt for female hackers.

When the word 'hacker' was first coined at MIT in the '60s, it was an honorable title. Hackers were known for their resourcefulness and their persistence in solving software-related problems. But after some major incidents, such as the legendary Internet worm of 'rtm' in the '80s, and the subsequent sensationalistic press coverage, the notion of 'hacker' has been reversed. In a society in which data security and the stability of the infrastructure have become major concerns, the hacker is being hyped as the perfect concept of an enemy. Hackers do not just function as a screen on which technophobia is projected, but also serve, very concretely, as an excuse to cut the rights of the netizens (see cybercrime convention etc.)

Opening doors for women in computing

Published on 2005-02-07, by Ed Frauenheim and Alorie Gilbert, ©CNET Networks, Inc..

After a harrowing first year, she quit the computer science program at the University of California at Los Angeles. Until that point--six years ago--Gonzalez had excelled at math and had looked forward to a computer-centric career. But at UCLA, she felt overwhelmed by the programming experience of her mostly male peers. With no programming classes under her belt, the "sink or swim"-style courses, she said, did not suit her.

I never worked so hard to get Cs, recalls Gonzalez, now a public-school teacher in New York. It was a blow to my ego, and it scared me.

Women Hackers -- a report from the mission to locate subversive women on the net

Published on 1999, by Cornelia Sollfrank, ©Cornelia Sollfrank.

Today the net has become a virtual, real and omnipresent part of life. Those who are not on-line find themselves confronted with www-addresses every-where, with advertisements for IT-technologies in TV commercials and on bill-boards. They feel surrounded by this new, mysterious presence. And this pervasive image carries the message that life will be better thanks to the high-speed information highway. We will all work and learn more effectively, consume better and cheaper products, get better medical care, have more interesting friends and more fulfilling love-stories when we are on-line. But there is also a dark side to this glittering promise: the exploitation of third-world labour, the monopolisation of software, the globalization of economies, compre-hensive information control and surveillance, and the cyborgization of our bodies. Both technophilia and technophobia flourish, creating an ever-growing gap. It is there, within that gap, instigated by the insiders#-the developers and users of technology#that a politically motivated, constructive critique could and should take place. Within that specialized company there is one notable cultural environment which can be located and defined#the hacker scene.

Women's access to on-line discussions about feminism

Published on 1991, by Ellen Balka, ©Ellen Balka.

Public figures as diverse as Tony Benn (a former British Minister of Technology) (Ruthven, 1983) and Timothy Leary (Leary, 1984) have argued that computer communication technology will provide the means for an effective, participatory democracy. Benn argued that the emerging computer communication technology could "be used to inform citizens about government activities, to allow them to exchange opinions, and to make it possible for them to play a more direct role in decision making" (Ruthven, 1983: 57). An advocate of open government, Benn focussed upon the ability of emerging computer networking technology to support a two-way flow of information between citizens and the state. Along with Leary (1984), Gabree (1984) and others, Benn argued that computer networks would widen the range of comment and opinion easily available to the general public (Ruthven, 1983). Computer networks were seen to have the potential to render political decision-making more democratic (Gabree, 1984).