Recalling software’s women pioneers

Many of humanity’s major advances in research and technology have come during times of warfare. Such is the case of discoveries in medicine and reconstructive surgery, aeronautics’ growth, and radar systems and information technology (IT), prompted by the Second World War. Wars are historical events in which women’s role in the public arena acquired greater weight, as they fill the positions in the labor force that men, called up to fight, have left vacant. This precisely happened during the early years of IT development when women became the pioneers of computer science.

Grace Murray Hopper (1906-1992) is considered one of the world’s first computer programmers. After earning a Ph.D. in mathematics from Yale University, she joined the US Navy, where she was entrusted with developing the first electromagnetic computer (the Mark I). She ended up creating COBOL (Common Business Oriented Language), the 20th century’s most widely used high-end computer language.

A group of women also designed the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC), the first of its kind capable of calculating missile trajectories. In the end, two men were the ones that introduced it to the world. This computer and the pinpoint calculations undertaken by its female designers helped speed up the end of the war. These pioneering women were Betty Snyder Holberton, Jean Jennings Bartik, Kathleen McNulty Mauchly Antonelli, Marlyn Wescoff Meltzer, Ruth Lichterman Teitelbaum, and Frances Bilas Spence.
There are myriad more examples through to the 1980s. In fact, in 1987, 42% of the software developers and 34% of the systems analysts in the US were women.

Women studied Computer Science en masse during the 1960s, as it was a technical field in which men had yet to dominate. Furthermore, programming had not been defined as a strictly scientific and engineering field. This meant that according to the mindset at that time, which separated higher education into “male” and “female” subjects, computer science was considered “suitable” for women to study. Men were more attracted to the hardware-related part of IT.

What changed this and led to the percentage of women specializing in IT falling to today’s 20%? There is not just one reason.

49.5% of the world’s population is currently made up of women. Yet, they do not account for even 30% of the professionals in the software sector, holding only 30% of management positions across all sectors. The figure for top female managers and board members is around 26%.
In recent years, women have increased their presence in the corridors of power, but there is still a long way to go. In the case of software professionals, this road was once traveled by their pioneers. We should embrace female talent, which was decisive at one of recent history’s most critical moments. Let us once again ensure women receive the recognition they deserve.The advent of personal computers transformed the image of IT, creating the “hacker” stereotype as a solitary, eccentric, and manifestly male character. Indeed, already by the 1990s, parents were twice as likely to give their son a PC as their daughter, which meant that boys experimented sooner with programming and handled hardware from a very early age.
A further reason, and perhaps the most important one, was the growing impact that all software-related matters had on the economy. Firms began to need team leaders and managers in IT…in short, high-level jobs that were still barred from women.

Goal: to even out the percentages

49.5% of the world’s population is currently made up of women. Yet, they do not account for even 30% of the professionals in the software sector, holding only 30% of management positions across all sectors. The figure for top female managers and board members is around 26%.

In recent years, women have increased their presence in the corridors of power, but there is still a long way to go. In the case of software professionals, this road was once traveled by their pioneers. We should embrace female talent, which was decisive at one of recent history’s most critical moments. Let us once again ensure women receive the recognition they deserve.