Does women’s history matter? Will our history matter to our daughters and granddaughters? The results of our recent elections showed me that we have a long way to go for the value of women to be recognized beyond our loving families and friends.
I am a charter member of the National Women’s History Museum founded in 1996 to establish a museum for women in Washington, D.C. For twenty years, we have been unable to get support from the government to see the need and approve a location for a museum of women’s history. It is not a matter of money. WE will fund our museum if needed. They simply do not see the need.
The elections made me realize the importance of getting involved, of bringing women to the forefront of leadership at all levels, in our families, communities, state government and nationally.
I thought I would begin by sharing with you some of our history, our often disregarded history. Getting women into STEM programs and careers is a major focus. Here are some women who have gone before us in the area of computing.
Ada Byron, Countess of Lovelace, collaborated with Charles Babbage while he designed a prototype computer machine. Ada was trained in mathematics in 1843. She published notes and translated Charles text, providing the earliest sketches of computing. She also wrote how the engine could be set up to solve mathematical equations (programming). She was the first person to suggest a use for the computing machines beyond mathematics using these machines could compute any data.
Before 1943, all computing was done by people, called human computers. They manually calculated large volumes of data. The needs of wartime inspired the use of ENIAC, the first fully electronic digital computer in the U.S. Many women worked on this project, there was no manual or anyone with experience, so they trained themselves, learning about the computer and its component through trial and error.
The machines had to be configured manually for each calculation, converting a mathematical problem into a form a computer could solve, designing the instructions configured for the machine to use. Next, they set up the computers, plugging in wires, setting switches so that the program would run. Trial and error, problem solving took a full day for each problem. They developed numerous programming techniques including a program to calculate ballistic trajectories. In 1946, Adele Goldstine, a programmer on the project wrote the first manual.
Despite this important work, the women never got credit at the big publicity event held for ENIAC in 1946. It was not until historians looking into computer history found old records showing the work of these women, the six women of ENIAC, *Jean Jennings Bartik, Betty Snyder Holberton, Frances Bilas Spence, Kay McNulty Mauchly Antonelli, Marlyn Wescoff Meltzer and Ruth Lichterman Teitelbaum. *I included both their maiden and married names.
After the war, these women went on to offer their programming talents in both the private and public sectors. Because there was not a workforce yet of other programmers, these women were in demand.
Grace Murray Hooper, a math professor, programmed the early computer during the war at Harvard, the Mark 1, invented the first compiler and developed programming languages for business computing.
Women’s history in computing goes on to this day with our contributions having a significant impact on the computing world even with the ongoing lack of gender equity in the field.
Honoring the history of women in computing, sharing their stories and respecting their contributions, lift us all up and inspires the next generation of women.