WOMEN’S INTEGRAL ROLE IN EARLY COMPUTER PROGRAMMING IF YOU ARE A WOMAN PLANNING TO GO INTO SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING, OR MATH, YOU KNOW PHRASES LIKE, “THAT’S GREAT, TECH NEEDS MORE WOMEN” ALL TOO WELL. THERE HAS BEEN INCREASING AWARENESS TO THE GENDER GAP IN TECH, AND THIS CREATES A SIGNIFICANT PUSH TO GET MORE WOMEN INTO MALE DOMINATED FIELDS LIKE STEM.GETTING WOMEN INTO THESE MASCULINE ORIENTED JOBS AND FIELDS OF STUDY HAS PROVED ITSELF TO BE VERY DIFFICULT. NOT ONLY DOES STIGMA AND SELF-DOUBT DETER WOMEN FROM THESE FIELDS, BUT ALSO WORK ENVIRONMENTS THAT ARE BUILT TO VALUE MASCULINE TRAITS PREVENT WOMEN FROM SUCCEEDING. WITH TECHNOLOGY FIELDS SPECIFICALLY, WOMEN STRUGGLE TO FIND THEIR PLACE BECAUSE TECHNOLOGY ITSELF HAS HISTORICALLY BEEN CONSIDERED MASCULINE, WHICH MAKES IT VERY DIFFICULT FOR FEMININE TRAITS AND VALUES TO SUCCEED AND FLOURISH. WHAT NOT MANY PEOPLE KNOW IS THAT ONE OF THE MOST POPULAR FORMS OF BUILDING TECH WAS NOT ALWAYS LIKE THIS. ORIGINALLY, WOMEN WERE THE ONES WHO DOMINATED PROGRAMMING, AND THEREFORE THE TECH INDUSTRY AT THE TIME. BUT THIS BEGS THE QUESTIONS: WHY WAS PROGRAMMING SO FEMININE DOMINATED, AND WHAT HAPPENED TO TRANSFORM THE FIELD INTO A MASCULINE ONE? AT THE ORIGINS OF THE COMPUTER PROGRAMMING FIELD, PROGRAMMING WAS CONSIDERED LOW LEVEL TEDIOUS WORK, SIMILAR TO TYPING OR FILING. HARDWARE WAS MORE HEAVILY VALUED, AND THEREFORE THE SOFTWARE PIECE OF WORK WAS PASSED TO WOMEN. WOMEN WROTE SOFTWARE AND PAVED THE WAY FOR THE FIELD OF CODING AND PROGRAMMING COMPUTERS.A GROUP OF MORE THAN 50 PERCENT WOMEN PROGRAMMED THE UNITED STATES’ FIRST MILITARY COMPUTER. FAMOUS WOMEN LIKE GRACE HOPPER AND MARGARET HAMILTON MADE HISTORY WITH THEIR CONTRIBUTIONS TO IMPORTANT PROGRAMMING WORK. THESE PROGRAMMING WOMEN EXCELLED AT THEIR WORK BECAUSE OF THEIR SHARP FOCUS AND HARD WORKING MINDSET.
Margaret Hamilton
Grace Hopper
