Women in Computing

Women in tech

Obtained from: www.evapascoe.com/

Ioana Borislavova Koleva

November 2, 2021

Ioana Koleva HWU Page | 1

 ABSTRACT
This report focuses on exploring the gender gap in computer related fields and
the reasons for the gap to exist. Topics that are covered revolve around important
female historical figures that played a significant role in early computer
development and programming. Workplace discrimination against women as a
whole and women of colour, as well as statistics of the pipeline of computing were
also reviewed. The report’s aims are to suggest and find ways of overcoming those
issues, and to discover ways of inspiring more females into the tech industry. To
do that research on historical articles and books was done as well as analysing
recent statistics and reviewing TED talks and videos on the topic. The analysis of
information highlight that the lack of current female role models in computing is
one of the main reasons for young women to avoid going into this industry. Other
information showed that stereotypes around computing is directly associated with
women lacking interest in the industry as they do not believe that they are fit for
the profession.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

1........................................................................................................................................ 3

2. Introduction ............................................................................................................. 4

3. Was it always men? ................................................................................................ 4

4. When did things start to change? ........................................................................ 6

5. Current Statistics ..................................................................................................... 8

6. Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 9

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INTRODUCTION & MAIN BODY

1. Introduction
Technology has advanced enormously in recent decades and is now
incorporated in every person’s daily life. It is designed to enhance our lives
whilst still keeping us connected with the world around and with our loved
ones. Although technology has many uses it is an undeniable fact that it has a
major impact in everyone’s life regardless of their gender. Therefore, why is it
predominantly men working in computing related fields to develop this future
for all of us? This report will focus on highlighting the important role of women
in the field, female historical figures that played a role in early stages of
computing and discussing today’s gender gap in computing fields and how it
could be improved.
2. Was it always men?

In today’s world it has become a stereotype that programming, hardware, and

computing, or simply any STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and
Mathematics) are all a “man’s job”. However, looking back in history to the first
ever computer programmer, it was found that she was a female. Her name was
Ada Lovelace (refer to Fig. 1) and she was a woman of the Industrial Revolution.
What is known is that she was strictly encouraged to pursue mathematics and
science by her mother Anna Isabelle Byron, who was also a mathematician.
Ada played an important role in the computing history, and as at that time
“women were not the most welcome in the scientific male dominated circles of
the titled society of the time” (L. Carlucci Aiello, , 2016, p58-59) it is surprising
that she still managed to affect today’s technology world greatly. What brought
her fame was not a new invention, but her deep understanding, analytics, and
knowledge. At just 17 years old she became friends with Charles Babbage and
contributed to his project the Analytical Engine, which was a “general purpose
calculator” (L. C. Aiello et al., 2016). According to “Inspiring STEM Minds” (A.D.
Isabelle and N. Z. Valle, 2015) Ada “was one of the few who knew how it
worked”. Babbage had hired her to translate notes on the engine written by an
Italian mathematician Louis Menebrea from French to English. However, her
understanding of the engine was so deep that she managed to increase the
notes 3 times from their original size by attaching hers to it. Some of them were
similar to what today we would call a programming algorithm (refer to Fig. 2).
In her notes she said that the engine “might compose and elaborate any
scientific pieces of music of any degree of complexity or extent” (Computer
History Museum, n.d), which is a relatively accurate prediction of some of the

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 current computer functionality. Ada was
not the only influential woman in
computing, but she was one of the most
important, and most famous ones. Her
work proves that computing and
innovation is a question of passion and
interest, not gender. Another famous
woman is also Admiral Grace Murray
Hopper who invented the first computer
compiler, which is also now used in
programming. Those and many other
instances in computing history are proof
that women do hold a place in
computing and if anything, the gender
diversity would bring up more
innovative and interesting ideas to the
technology world.

Fig. 1

Ada Lovelace 1838 Credit: Science Museum 1

Fig. 2 Ada Lovelace’s notes on Analytical Engine

Credit: https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/

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3. When did things start to change?

Evidence clearly shows that women played an important role in the early stages
of computing and programming. This brings up the following question: If they
were so engaged back then, why are we seeing such a huge decline in women
in computing now?

PROGRAMMERS DURING WWII

The exploration of this question can be traced back to one of the recent
problems in the human history, namely the WWII. During the WWII, the
majority of the men were at the battlefield, which left women behind to be
taking care of children, homes, and also programming. Women were the
majority of programmers back in the 1940’s. This was because back then the
US Army needed a way of knowing where to point their weapons to and how to
calculate ballistic trajectories or artillery shells, but to do that they were using
“Fire Tables” which were sheets of paper with a bunch of instructions and
numbers on them. They took over 30-40 hours to be created and were typed
up by women with mathematics degrees, also called human-computers. The
war opened hundreds of job vacancies for women with mathematics degrees
to become programmers as back then programming was seen as a ‘cleric job’
leading to them being underpaid.
To create a more efficient way to calculate trajectories, a project called the
ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator) was proposed to the
US government for funding. This was essentially the first ever digital computer
and was programmed and developed by 6 women hired by the two men that
proposed the project. Developing the computer was difficult and it involved
solving a lot of hard mathematical problems.

AFTER THE WWII

Although the computer was programmed by the six women, their names were
completely omitted from the project once it was publicly announced, and they
were not even invited to the dinner for the celebration of the ENIAC. It was
often for that time women’s names not to be included in any of the computing
projects and works.

Post the war-era men found out that programming was actually complex and
difficult, which made it “prestigious” and a lucrative profession. (Hackernoon,
2017). Contrasting its previous overview of “technical work was often explicitly
positioned in opposition to the intellectual and highly skilled work…
computing and programming were often framed as especially conductive for
women – as something that could be done at home while caring for children or
as something akin to ‘following a recipe’”, (V. Schafer & B. G. Thierry, 2015). This

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 led to a semi-hostile takeover of men over the computing field as they tried to
discourage women of entering this field, because they were seen as error-
prone, gossiping and time-wasting.

Some of the ways that men tried to discourage women of entering the field
were recorded as:

• Aptitude tests: The tests were designed by men, and in favour of men as
they were sharing the answers of the tests around male-only groups so
that women have less of a chance of passing them
• Advertisements: They were designed in specific way to show women as
unfit for the roles of computing. They were showing programmers as
nerdy, socially awkward individuals and male.
o A famous advertisement quote for the company Optical Scanning
Corporation Ran is “What has sixteen legs, eight waggly tongues
and costs you at least $40,000 a year?” Your team of 8 female
programmers, that’s what.” To show women as a waste of money,
making employers less likely to hire women.
• Movies: Movies such as War Games and Weird Science boosted the
stereotype for a programmer by also showing them as a male ‘computer
genius’
• Console Games: Later on, in the 1970’s when video game consoles
came out, they were decided to be put in the boys’ toys aisle in shops.
This led to them being marketed only towards young boys and this
stereotype still sticks today. Gaming is advertised as a male hobby,
making less girls involved in technology

All those factors led to a huge drop in women taking interest in computing or
computer related degrees. Statistics have shown that the ‘female invented field’
went down to 37% gender ratio by 1986 from approximately 50% in previous
years (Hackernoon, 2017).

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 Fig. 3 A Fire Table (Range Table) for WWII

Obtained from: www.archive.org

4. Current Statistics

As of recent statistics, according to the NCWIT (National Centre for Women &
Information Technology) in 2015, women make up only 25% of all employees
in computing. 16% of which are white women, 5% are Asian, 3% are Black or
African and 1% are Latina or Hispanic. This reiterates the gender gap in the
computer field but also the lack of cultural diversity. Fig. 5 reveals that although
there is a decline in the percentage of women in computing, women receiving
degrees in STEM subjects have been strictly increasing. The lack of role models
in the computing industry such as female computing teachers, female CEOs,
and advertisement of females in the tech industry is making it difficult for young
girls to ‘be what they cannot see’. This is important because in order for a
woman to work in computing she has to enter the famous metaphor of the
‘leaky pipeline’ (A. Vitores, A. Gil-Juárez, 2016) where different stages of
pursuing a career ‘leak’ when people drop out of a subject. 74% of women that
currently work in computing reported that they were exposed to computing in
Middle school (U.S. News, 2016). This means that in order to increase the
percentage of women in computing, more role models are needed.

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Fig. 4 – Statistics of women in STEM over years

Obtained from: www.wpassets.ncwit.org

CONCLUSION
5. Conclusion
The computing gender gap has been around for a long time. Back during the
second world war it was proven that women are fully capable of programming and
contributing positively to the computing society, but they were later seen as
futilely spent salaries and were purposely discouraged from studying computer-
related degrees. Stereotypes and advertisements have led to a huge decline in
women in technology, workplace discrimination and covering. In conclusion, to
tackle this issue more women should be encouraged to pursue computing so that
they can create more role models and break the current stereotypes that hold girls
back from taking interest in computing.

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REFERENCES

A. Vitores, A. Gil-Juárez (2016). The trouble with ‘women in computing’: a critical

examination of the deployment of research on the gender gap in computer
science, Journal of Gender Studies, p666-680
Carlucci Aiello, L. (2016). The multifaceted impact of Ada Lovelace in the digital age.
Artificial Intelligence, 235, pp.58–62.

Hackernoon (2017). A Brief History of Women in Computing [Electronic Version]

Retrieved 1st November 2021 from https://hackernoon.com/a-brief-history-of-
women-in-computing-e7253ac24306
Isabelle, A., Valle N. (2016) Inspiring STEM Minds (1st ed.) Rotterdam: SensePublishers

Schafer, V. and Thierry, B.G. (2015) Connecting Women. (1st ed.).

U.S News (2016). Study: Middle School Is Key to Girls' Coding Interest. [Electronic Version]
Retrieved 1st November 2021 from https://www.usnews.com/news/data-
mine/articles/2016-10-20/study-computer-science-gender-gap-widens-despite-
increase-in-jobs
Fig. 1: Retrieved from: https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects-and-
stories/women-computing
Fig. 2: Retrieved from: https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects-and-
stories/women-computing
Fig. 3: Retrieved from:
https://archive.org/details/gunneryexplosive00unitrich/page/18/mode/2up
Fig. 4: Retrieved from: https://wpassets.ncwit.org/wp-
content/uploads/2021/05/13193304/ncwit_women-in-it_2016-full-report_final-
web06012016.pdf
Title page image: Retrieved from: https://www.evapascoe.com/shake-women-
computing-ratio-evas-top-5-influencers/

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