The Computer Girls?
In a recent talk that I gave at Stanford University, I discussed the changing role of women in the computing industry. The focus of the talk was a 1968 article in Cosmopolitan Magazine called “The Computer Girls”. An unusual source for a historian of computing, but one of my favorite and most useful. My particular favorite: a quote from the celebrated computer pioneer Admiral Grace Hopper comparing computer programming to following a recipe: “You have to plan ahead and schedule everything so it’s ready when you need it. Programming requires patience and the ability to handle detail. Women are ‘naturals’ at computer programming.”
6 Responses to “The Computer Girls?”
July 26th, 2011 saat: 10:30 pm
[...] die “typischen” Programmierer-Geschlechterrollen… der 1960er, inklusive eines Scans einer damaligen Cosmopolitan: Now have come the big, dazzling computers—and a whole new kind of work for women: [...]
September 13th, 2011 saat: 12:06 pm
[...] at The University of Texas, Austin and emailed him. In his e-mail reply he provided links to his detailed website about the early role of women in the world of [...]
October 25th, 2011 saat: 12:51 pm
[...] of Texas at Austin, unearthed an article from the April 1967 issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine called The Computer Girls. The article described a career in computer programming as offering better job opportunities for [...]
October 25th, 2011 saat: 11:56 pm
[...] of Texas at Austin, unearthed an article from the April 1967 issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine called The Computer Girls. The article described a career in computer programming as offering better job opportunities for [...]
March 23rd, 2012 saat: 3:45 am
[...] was at least a brief time in the 1840s when 100% of developers were women. As late as the 1960s, computing was seen as women’s work, emphasis [...]
February 1st, 2013 saat: 3:00 am
This may be true, but when I was in college for Computer Science, in all my computer classes, I had maybe five women in those classes. Tops.
It’s very hard to find women in IT. But of the ones I’ve met, they’ve all been very good!
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