Women in Technology
The International Women's Day is celebrated on March 8. To mark the date, we publish an article about the presence and importance of women in the world of technology.
The tech industry is one of the sectors where gender disparity becomes most evident. In Portugal, only 15.7% of jobs in this area are held by women, according to a study by the 2020 Women in Digital Scoreboard. In Silicon Valley - the global epicenter of technology and innovation - only 8% of positions are held by the female gender.
This discrepancy is based on a socio-cultural problem. Since they are children, boys and girls are encouraged to play differently, to dream of different careers, and then they actually face very unequal opportunities. Girls are encouraged to play with dolls and kitchen sets, while boys receive toy cars, video games, and footballs.
Women are in the majority in higher education and study for longer, but when it comes to computer science, computers, and innovation, they are still a minority. Besides the inequality of opportunities, the salary gap is also glaring, despite constant efforts to diminish it.
If in the 21st century you still think that programming is "a boy's thing", you are very mistaken! Women have made History in the world of technology: Ada Lovelace was the creator of the first algorithm to be processed by a machine; Grace Hopper invented the first code for computers; and Karen Spärck created the concept of IDF, which is used in most current search engines. And these are just a few examples.
Read this article to learn more about the women who made an impact on technology!
Ada Lovelace
When talking about “Women in Tech”, the name Ada Lovelace is mandatory. Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace, grew up in an aristocratic environment and had an excellent education - uncommon for women of the time. In 1843, she translated an article by an Italian mathematician and supplemented the study with her observations. These notes turned out to be better than the original article and contained an algorithm that was considered the first computer program in history.
Furthermore, Ada Lovelace developed a study on the possibility of computers being used to perform other operations beyond mathematical calculations, which was the focus of all researchers at the time. Unfortunately, she was unable to put it into practice, as she did not have the equipment capable of proving her research. Ada Lovelace was far ahead of her time and made remarkable discoveries and studies.
The programmers of ENIAC
The ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) was the first computer in History. It weighed 30 tons, occupied 167 square meters, and was launched in 1946. This machine initially appeared in the U.S. Army during World War II.
Behind this innovative invention for its time were 6 women mathematicians who were erased from history: Jean Jennings Bartik, Marlyn Wescoff Meltzer, Ruth Lichterman Teitelbaum, Betty Snyder Holberton, Frances Bilas Spence, and Kay Mauchly Antonelli. Unjustly, the ENIAC has always been associated with the project manager: John Mauchly.
Sister Mary Kenneth Keller
Mary Kenneth Keller was the first woman to earn a PhD in computer science. She received her degree in 1965 from Washington University in the United States. Her contribution to the world of technology was fundamental in the creation of the BASIC programming language - a more accessible language, created to simplify programming and for academic purposes.
Wrote four books on computing and programming, which are still a reference to this day. Currently, he/she lends his/her name to the Computer Science Center and a scholarship at the university where he/she worked for over 20 years.
Jean Sammet
Sammet completed her PhD in Computer Science in 1968, three years after Sister Keller. She was the creator of one of the first existing programming languages - FORMAC, used to manipulate non-numeric mathematical formulas. She also worked at IBM (International Business Machines Corporation, one of the most influential companies in the technology field) for 27 years, where she made significant contributions to technological evolution.
Sammet also chaired the Association for Computing Machinery, a non-profit project that supports the use of computing in scientific and academic research. Currently, it has over 70,000 members, making it the largest association in the sector.
Grace Hopper
Grace Hopper was a very important woman in the technology sector. Her contributions to the evolution are still utilized today. Early in her career, she became the first woman to graduate from Yale University, with a PhD in mathematics, and she was also the first admiral in the United States Navy. With the creation of COBOL, a programming language for commercial databases, still in use, she definitely entered into History.
She is the author of the famous phrase "it's easier to ask for forgiveness than for permission," which represents the difficulty that women had (and still have) in entering the tech sector.
And Digiplanet takes great pride in being made up of 50% Women who help our company grow every day. Without them, nothing would be possible. A special thank you to all of them on this day.
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