Where did the Women go?
The first computer programmer was a woman – Ada Lovelace! Margaret Hamilton coined the phrase ‘software engineer’. During World War II, many female mathematicians acted as ‘human computers’ calculating ballistics by hand. During the war, many women worked as code breakers in Bletchley Park, but afterwards were directed to keep this activity secret. Seventy five percent of those employed in the Bletchley Park codebreaking operation were women, yet these women were not formally recognised as analysts as their male counterparts were, they were instead asked to describe their jobs as ‘secretarial’. Many of these women went to their graves without telling anyone about the critical work they had done in Bletchley Park! Women were in computing roles, not just because men were at war, but because these roles were seen as women’s roles.
Changing the image of tech roles
There was an intentional move to push women out of tech when in the 1960s and 1970s, the men in charge started to realise the impact machines were having on automating work and changing how businesses operated. They began to see just how important computing was going to be in the future. Those in charge believed that the women involved in computing didn’t fit the image that was required to grow the industry. There was a top down campaign to alter the make-up of the workforce moving from tech experts to management. At the time, men generally were not interested in entering this feminised field. The decline in women in computing wasn’t because women didn’t have the technical skills or due to a shortage of women. It was a concerted effort to change the make-up of the tech workforce!
Where did the women go?
Where did the women go when they were pushed out of tech in the 1960s? One person who saw the value of this talent was Steve (Stephanie) Shirley. Stephanie Shirley used the name Steve as she was taken more seriously when she used a man’s name! She set up a highly successful software company and hired women who were no longer wanted by the tech industry. She offered these women flexible working arrangements with the ability to work from home. Interesting to see how remote working was possible for tech employees over sixty years ago and in today’s high tech society some are still struggling with this! Her team worked on high tech critical projects including programming the black box for the Concorde, a tech marvel of that time! In her book “Programmed Inequality”, Mar Hicks shares that women were the largest trained technical workforce of the computing industry during the second world war and through to the mid-sixties.
The mid-eighties marked a turning point for women in technology
According to research by William F. Vogel, the number of women in computing almost tripled from 1971 to 1985. 1985 was a heyday for women in tech with women making up 38% of the labour force at that time. Then something dramatically changed! The number of women in computer science flattened, and then plunged. By the early 1990s, the golden era for women in tech ended. Vogel’s research says that the industry was portrayed as a workforce of white men, with women commonly being a target of derisive humour. Referencing Nathan Ensmenger’s gender analysis in The Computer Boys Take Over, Vogel says that women in computing were portrayed in a hostile manner in the 1960s. “The idealized programmer came to be typified with stereotypically male characteristics, and female programmers conversely were portrayed in a negative light”. An article by Lori Cameron and Michael Martinez notes that “the rampant sexism of the 1960s, followed by more tolerant social attitudes toward gender diversity in the 1970s seemed to set the course for an even greater presence of women in the computing workforce. Yet other cultural forces were at work in establishing a mindset that questioned the place of young girls in the world of computing. Vogel pointed out that “while equal opportunity and anti-discriminatory practices were common in the 1980s workplace, films such as Revenge of the Nerds and War Games portrayed programmers as exclusively male.” Even though Mary Wilkes designed the system for one of the first home computers and was the first person to own a home computer back in 1965, it was not a continued trend. The graph below shows a sharp decline in women’s participation in computer science from the mid 1980s. This coincided with a few things – home computers which were heavily marketed to one gender only, a narrative that computers were for boys, the popularity of a geeky boy image, films including Weird Science and those mentioned already, and girls and women not feeling welcome in tech due to sexism. Often home computers were in boys’ bedrooms and not accessible to their sisters. For girls studying computer science it placed them at a distinct disadvantage not to have access to a home computer. For me, having worked hard for many years to improve gender equity in tech, I was extremely disappointed when I realised the causes of lack of female representation in tech were deliberate!
Dispelling myths about women’s interest in tech
It is clear that the myth that women just aren’t as interested in tech is simply not true! There is a narrative that the low numbers of women in tech is a pipeline issue. It’s important to remember, women have always played a pivotal role in tech! An article sharing a 2022 study states that “the ratio is still 3:1 in tech and only 20 percent of computer science and 22 percent of engineering undergraduate degrees in the US go to women”. The word ‘still’ is misleading as in the past this figure was more positive, with a lot of women involved in early computing.
You cannot be what you cannot see
With the knowledge that you cannot be what you cannot see, it is important that we hear more stories about women who were involved in the early days of tech! If young girls are hearing through the media they consume that tech is not a place they belong, surely knowing more about the vital role women have played in tech could influence their college choices? I was privileged to see Geena Davis speaking at a conference about the challenge of addressing gender balance in the film industry. She noticed that the shows and movies her young daughter watched had few or no female role models. She set up the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, which engages film and television creators to dramatically increase the percentages of female characters and reduce gender stereotyping in media made for children aged eleven and under. Progress has been made on gender representation but there is still a need to improve representation across other dimensions of diversity. Geena spoke about how long it takes to see change, but also how this process can be accelerated. She spoke about the CSI effect, which led to a huge increase in women studying forensic science. Just seeing female role models on the screen can have a dramatic impact.
Tech industry in crisis?
Looking at what is going on in the tech industry over the past couple of years in particular, with mass layoffs, often carried out without empathy, and polarised perspectives and regressive thinking around remote and hybrid working, you could say the industry is going through a crisis. Layoffs are presented as a way of reducing costs and solving organisational performance issues, but with a high frequency they do not appear to solve underlying problems, and in fact companies often don’t reduce costs, recover profitability, or increase productivity after downsizing. Organisations often end up losing key talent, hiring at a higher price later, and even hiring back those they paid redundancy to. As well as not achieving the expected business outcomes, downsizing often creates an environment of low trust, morale and motivation, reduced innovation, and increased risk aversion. Downsizing can undo many years of hard work building an environment of Psychological Safety and collaboration. Great cultures and high trust working environments built up over many years can be destroyed in one foul swoop! In a future article, I will look at the impact of work environments and organisational cultures on gender representation in tech.
The diversity of your customer base
If there was better gender representation at senior levels in tech, the industry might be in better shape today. In a rapidly evolving tech sector, why would you not want to avail of the competitive edge a broader talent pool offers? Women are almost fifty percent of the population. As Mary McAleese said, ‘to exclude women's full contribution was to be a country "flying on one wing instead of two". Imagine what opportunities and competitive advantage businesses are missing out on by not engaging with the full talent pool! As women are high technology users, why is technology being designed in many cases by teams made up almost exclusively by men? We can design better and more inclusive products if our workforces represent the diversity of the world we live in. The tech industry is relatively young but very fast changing. With a gap in the number of women in senior leadership and roles of influence in tech, women have not been allowed to play a meaningful role in defining and shaping the tech industry. If we want to effect positive change, we need to understand the history, and the factors that have, and continue to drive women out of tech.
Women in roles of influence
Just 19 per cent of CEOs in Ireland are women (with a smaller figure in large companies); 25% of STEM employees are Women; 2.8% of venture capital funding goes to women-only teams. Shockingly, female founders are frequently advised to seek out a male co-founder! About eight per cent of CEO positions at the largest listed companies in the EU28 in 2023 were women, according to the European Institute for Gender Equality. Ireland has become one of only two European Union states to have no women leading any of its listed companies. According to UNESCO, just 22% of professionals working in the field of AI are women. The irony is that these fields are not only driving the Fourth Industrial Revolution; they are also characterized by a skills shortage. Women remain a minority in technical and leadership roles in tech companies. In the USA, the main reason given by women for leaving their job in the tech world is a sense of being undervalued.
These dismal figures are against a backdrop of a large number of tech innovations over many years having been created by women. Gillian Harford, Country Executive 30% Club Ireland put it well when she said “Ultimately it remains a continuing journey to remove barriers and change the systems that we operate within so that - rather than workplaces designed by our grandfathers, to suit the lives of our fathers - our workplaces are designed today, for the fully diverse workforce to thrive tomorrow.”
A more human approach
While the Agile Manifesto principles (created in 2001) brought a more human approach to software development, it is worth noting that this manifesto was created by a group of seventeen men (and no women)! Having a lack of women in tech has real-world consequences for the future of technology, healthcare and for society at large. My experience has often been that I was the only or one of very few women in the room, and I have seen tech and product strategy being created by groups that did not include any women! How can leaders think this is acceptable? With as many as eighty percent of purchasing decisions being made by women, it makes business sense to prioritise gender representation. To truly excel at creating products that resonate and engage customers, our workforces need to represent the diversity of our customer base. I joined my last company as the first female Director of Engineering, and four years later, we had gotten to fifty per cent women in that role – which proves what can be achieved by being intentional. I’m really excited to be working with organisations to help them drive this type of change so that we can see that impact right across the ecosystem. This was one of the drivers that motivated me to set up The Leading Place.
Gender equality cannot be a ‘side’ issue
In her conversation with Brené Brown, on “Unlocking Us” podcast, Melinda Gates said: “Gender issues have been labelled by men as ‘side’ or ‘soft’ issues … It turns out [these gender issues] are the ‘central’ issues, and if you focus on them you will unlock so much more for a family, a community, a country.” I believe we need to intentionally embed diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging in how we work, and to give it the investment it needs and deserves in order to move the dial. One of the enlightening wisdom cards shared by Anita Sands a few years ago read “At some point, we stopped calling them colour televisions and just called them televisions. When will we stop saying ‘female leaders,’ and start highlighting great leaders who just happen to be female?”
I agree with this sentiment and hope for a time when we achieve better gender representation in tech, and don’t need women and allies groups in our workplaces!
Sharing the stories of women in tech
Brené Brown says “Stories are just data with a soul.” Each story can have a ripple effect on the world. I believe by sharing stories of the women who played a key role in tech that we can inspire future generations. Here are just a few of the amazing women:
Margaret Hamilton, renowned mathematician and computer science pioneer, is credited with having coined the term “software engineering” while developing the guidance and navigation system for the Apollo spacecraft as head of the Software Engineering Division of the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory. Margaret helped write the computer code for the command and lunar modules used on the Apollo missions to the Moon in the late 1960s and early 70s. I’ve shared a link below to an interview with Margaret Hamilton, which is joyful to watch!
Ada Lovelace – mathematician, an associate of Charles Babbage, for whose prototype of a digital computer she created a program. She has been called the first computer programmer. Ada Lovelace Day is celebrated on the second Tuesday in October!
Jean Jennings Bartik and Kay McNulty – Jean and Kay were members of the six all-female programmers who worked on the ENIAC electronic computer. The ENIAC was a room-sized computer used to calculate ballistics tables and thermodynamic equations. Originally employed as a human computer, Jean, Kay, and their colleagues learned how to program ENIAC by examining schematic diagrams and interviewing the engineers who built the machine. Kay, who was originally from Donegal, was honoured in July 2017 when Dublin City University (DCU) named their computing building Kathleen (Kay) McNulty.
Katherine Johnson - Katherine was a NASA mathematician who played a key role in numerous NASA missions during the Space Race. Katherine was the first African-American woman to attend graduate school at West Virginia University. She calculated the trajectory for the May 5, 1961 space flight of the first American in space, Alan Shepard. She also calculated the launch window for his 1961 Mercury mission. She plotted backup navigation charts for astronauts in case of electronic failures. Katherine later worked directly with digital computers. Her ability and reputation for accuracy helped to establish confidence in the new technology. She also helped to calculate the trajectory for the 1969 Apollo 11 flight to the moon.
Melba Roy, who headed the group of NASA mathematicians known as "computers" who tracked the Echo satellites
Hedy Lamar, a celebrated actress in MGM’s ”Golden Age” and a mathematician, invented an early version of frequency hopping in 1942, the code behind WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS
Frances Allen, the first woman to win the A.M. Turing Award (the highest honour in computer science), for her “pioneering contributions to the theory and practice of optimizing compiler techniques that laid the foundation for modern optimizing compilers and automatic parallel execution”
Kathleen Booth, who wrote the first assembly language, co-authored one of the first books about computer programming, and was a university lecturer
Kay McNulty, the Irish mother of computer programming – Kay was one of the six original programmers of the ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer), the first electronic general-purpose computer. She was also employed as human ‘computer’ during World War II along with a small team of other women - while raising seven children, she continued uncredited, to programme computers her husband developed)
Alexandra Illmer Forsythe - co-founder of the Stanford Computer Science program and author of the first computer science textbook
Steve (Stephanie) Shirley - set up her own software company and hired the women who were being pushed out of tech, offering them flexible family-friendly working arrangements. The women in her business worked on critical projects, including coding for the black box on the Concorde, the world’s first supersonic passenger service.
Grace Hopper was a computer pioneer, an innovator and naval officer. She earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in mathematics from Yale. Hopper is best known for her trailblazing contributions to computer programming, software development, and the design and implementation of programming languages.
What part will you play?
Zoe Kleinman in a recent articles highlights how a number of women in tech organisations have had to close due to lack of investment. Earlier this year, Women Who Code, a US-based group with 145,000 members closed due to lack of funding. The US non-profit community Girls in Tech closed in July citing lack of funding as the main reason. The UK initiative Tech Talent Charter shut in June. An Irish non-profit organisation that supports diversity in tech, Coding Grace, shared that it was finding funding challenging. Within your own organisation is there adequate priority and investment given to moving the dial on gender equity? If you are in a position to prioritise or influence setting gender equity goals and implementing initiatives, give it the priority and investment it needs and deserves. Abby Wambach in her 2022 commencement speech said “Stop believing organisations when they TELL you who they are. Demand to see proof, not in words but in numbers… A flag doesn’t tell you who a family, a company, a school or a country is – its investment does”. She also acknowledged that it can seem overwhelming but said “You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it… The only worlds you’re obligated to change are the small worlds - your office, your relationships, your community…”
When we have an opportunity to share and celebrate great women in technology, whether past or present, we must act on it. Celebrating and advocating on behalf of women in tech heightens their impact, brings them into focus and inspires today’s generation of future leaders. They will take these women with them, as part of their story and inspiration. Technology plays a vital role in the future of work and society. Together let's play our part in creating a more progressive and inclusive technology industry!
References & Further information:
Inspiring Women in Tech:
o Frances Allen - https://amturing.acm.org/award_winners/allen_1012327.cfm
o Jean Jennings Bartik - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buAYHonF968
o Kathleen Booth - https://medium.com/a-computer-of-ones-own/kathleen-booth-machine-learning-pioneer-7cb8b2ed70c8
o Geena Davis - https://geenadavisinstitute.org/
o Alexandra Forsythe - https://ethw.org/Alexandra_Forsythe
o Mar Hicks author of “Programmed Inequality” speaking at Women in Tech Sweden 2023 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eMWl0qh3mI
o Grace Hopper - https://president.yale.edu/biography-grace-murray-hopper
o Katherine Johnson - https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/langley/katherine-johnson-biography/
o Ada Lovelace (Day) - https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c7858w2yj75o
o Melba Roy - https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/melba-roy-computer-nasa-goddard/
o Steve / Stephanie Shirley – Why do ambitious women have flat heads?
o “Hidden Figures” by Margot Lee Shetterly and a movie based on the book, celebrates the contributions of the NASA ‘human computers’
Articles:
o Lori Cameron & Michael Martinez - https://www.computer.org/publications/tech-news/research/history-of-women-programmers-in-computing-gender
o Clemens, J. (2011) ‘Nathan Ensmenger. The Computer Boys Take Over: Computers, Programmers, and the Politics of Technical Expertise. Cambridge: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press, 2010. 336 pp. ISBN 978-0-2620-5-0937, $30 (cloth)’, Enterprise & Society, pp. 924–926. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1467222700010806
o Kim Elsesser “Claudia Goldin Wins Nobel Prize In Economics For Studying Women At Work” - https://www.forbes.com/sites/kimelsesser/2023/10/09/claudia-goldin-wins-nobel-prize-in-economics-for-studying-women-at-work/?sh=385cc25e1386
o Zoe Kleinman “Women in tech groups can’t run on inspiration alone” - https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c7858w2yj75o
o Alison Marsh “The Hidden Figures Behind Bletchley Park’s Code-Breaking Colossus: This top-secret project recruited 273 women to operate the world’s first digital electronic computer” - https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-hidden-figures-behind-bletchley-parks-codebreaking-colossus
o Vogel, W.F. (2017) ‘“The Spitting Image of a Woman Programmer”: Changing Portrayals of Women in the American Computing Industry, 1958-1985’, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, 39(2), pp. 49–64. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1109/MAHC.2017.14
Data:
o UNESCO: https://www.unesco.org/en/science-technology-and-innovation/gender-equality
o Women CEOs: https://www.irishtimes.com/business/2024/05/01/ireland-left-with-zero-female-listed-ceos-after-ires-switch/
o Women in STEM: https://hea.ie/statistics/data-for-download-and-visualisations/research-info-byte-series/women-in-stem/
o CSO - https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/ep/p-mip/measuringirelandsprogress2022/
o https://www.stemwomen.com/women-in-stem-ireland-statistics-and-key-findings
o https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsf21321/table/5-1
Other Links:
o The History of Women in Tech - https://www.womenintech.co.uk/the-history-of-women-in-tech/#:~:text=The%201970s%20were%20a%20bad,job%20titles%20despite%20being%20the
o NPR Planet Money - Episode 576: When Women Stopped Coding - https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2016/07/22/487069271/episode-576-when-women-stopped-coding?t=1651180064460&t=1651913570277
o 6 reasons we need women in tech: https://corporate.hackathon.com/articles/top-6-reasons-why-we-need-women-in-tech-in-2022#:~:text=The%20reason%20why%20we%20need,prevalent%20in%20male%2Ddominated%20industries.
o 30 percent club Ireland - https://30percentclub.org/chapters/ireland/
o Agile Manifesto - https://www.infoq.com/articles/manifesto-originators/
o Anita Sands - wisdom card
