Women in Computing from Colossus to the present
You'll have read about the restoration of WWII code breaking . While that project grabbed the headlines, a report into the lives of the women who operated code breaking machines and computers concluded at about the same time.
iPM has had an early chance to hear from the authors of that report and the surviving Bletchley women they interviewed. It provides an important insight into the contribution of women to the early days of computing - a contribution that goes right back to arguably the . Worryingly in researching this piece we also discovered that the gender divide in IT is getting worse not better. Dr Jan Peters of the is one of the authors of the report, in the audio below she talks about the lives of the women at Bletchley
and the BCS also worked on the research. She talks about the current situation of women in the computer business, it's a worrying picture but the solution is far from clear.
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My first memories of women in computing was as a programmer in the seventies when the 'girls' as we called them either operated the computer or were 'punch girls'. The thought that women could be programmers or even the boss just did not enter our heads - computing was man's work.
What a bunch of tossers we must have been - thnak god we have moved on but as your artilce shows not nearly enough
Complain about this postI'm hoping there will be an on-air mention of the Countess of Lovelace. Despite being the daughter of a poet I learned to despise thanks to school english lessons* she's one of my heroines.
* Lord Byron
Complain about this postSSC, you made the point I was going to - I think it's rather delightful that Byron's daughter was the first techie.
Complain about this postAnd I always thought Byron was a bit too much up himself. But then, so did/do a lot of other people.
Having worked with Jan Peters and Sue Black (through the British Computer Society) on aspects of documenting womens' involvement in early computer use, I note that the role of women in the use of the Bletchley Park machines was indeed highly important, but the need for secrecy and the 'need to know' principle meant that it was difficult for them to grasp the larger significance of the work.
There have been persistent pressures undermining women's participation in IT (I mean as engineers and developers, not as data entry clerks and typists!), and the BCS Women's Forum is still addressing these problems. Regrettably we note that in 21st century Britain there is actually a diminution of teenage girls' interest in science in technology, rather than an increase.
Where I do experience women making significant careers and contributions with ICT is in the knowledge industries such as publishing, librarianship, media and design. If 'Informatics' got more recognition, so also I feel would the significance of women's contribution.
Complain about this postConrad, I wonder if you and/or the BCS find that girls' lack of interest in science is because of the teaching? Or the subject matter? Or both?
I loathed science subjects and only did 'bilge' (Biology) because I had to do one science O-Level. Physics and Chemistry were dull and irrelevant, as I saw it, and taught by in the first instance a bore and in the second a sadist. (no names, of course, I don't want to got done for libel).
I now find some Physics-type topics fascinating and often talk to a Physics graduate friend about what seem to be relevant issues and news stories which are affecting, or will affect, all our lives.
Complain about this postSSC & Francis O, the bits of Byron they teach at school are the least interesting (WAINS?), but when he was being rude about people he was almost as fine as Rochester. If you ever come across Byron on Coleridge, Wordsworth, or the Lake Poets in general, nothing any daughter of his did will surprise you ever again. :-))
I wonder whether she would have thought of Wordsworth having to go up in a hot-air balloon, even so.
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Dear Frances, I cannot believe that the subject matter of science is inherently un-interesting to girls. Science is the subject-matter of the world around us -- in all its glory and great detail!
It has fallen to me to be a kind of "uncle" to a number of the young people in my neighbourhood (London SE16), and they have certainly shown a great deal of interest in talking to me about the natural world, the tides, natural phenomena, electronics, ICT, relativity and much besides.
I believe you are right in criticising schools. I was educated in Scotland (St Mirren's Academy, Paisley) where our mathematics teachers in the 1970s were seemingly more entertained by their physical abuse of the students than by teaching us. Naturally, it put me off the logical sciences. Like you, I don't want to be done for libel -- but why should so many of these teachers have been monsters? Who let them teach?
For me, the unexamined potential educational solution is the possible conjunction between adults like ourselves (who have knowledge and perspectives to offer), and young people who are open to knowledge discovery. To hell with the National Curriculum, it gets in the way. How to encourage curiousity? How to make history and science romantic? How to introduce the idea of Information Literacy; and in the same moment, bring in the the ideas of being critical about sources?
If you care, find a way.
Conrad
Complain about this postI would really like girls (and boys) to get excited and inspired by technology, I think it is the most important and interesting subject of our time and of the future. Almost everything we do now is affected by technology based on computer science, what could be more exciting?
At the University of Westminster we are keen to encourage and support women in technology. We have recently introduced a Computer Science foundation course run between 10am and 2pm which enables mothers (and fathers) of school age children to study and do the school run. As far as I know this is the first UK HE course to run in this mode.
I am very positive for the future of women in technology. Many important and influential people (male and female) are also supportive of women in technology. I recently asked Sir Tim Berners Lee whether he thought having more women working in the IT profession would improve the future of the world wide web, he was *extremely* supportive.
The British Computer Society via the BCSWomen network that I chair and the BCS Women's Forum are working together to support girls and women in computing. The current (female) BCS President Rachel Burnett is passionate about this issue and will be promoting women in computing throughout her presidential year.
It is a great time to be a woman involved in technology, the future depends on many of the decisions being made every day in technology companies around the world, the more that women are involved, the better the products and technologies that will evolve for our future.
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