There’s a gender gap in the tech industry, many women report this divide, but it never used to be this way. In fact, if a man was working in tech in the 1950s it was odd, this was normally seen as women’s work due to men traditionally doing manual labour or managerial work. We look at the women that paved the way in technology as early as the 1840s and the women still leading change today.
Caitlin Martin at C A Design Services looks back at some of the women in tech who have helped to shape the world of technology for us all.
The Women that Paved the Way
Lady Ada Lovelace
Ada, the only child of Lord Byron, is known as one of the first computer programmers. Her work in 1842 was seen as mathematics at the time but would today be recognised as computer programming. After meeting an inventor named Charles Babbage in 1833, Ada became fascinated with his latest idea of the ‘Analytical Engine’ which, if completed, would have been an early computer. Unfortunately, as his computer was never built, Ada’s code, known as the first computer programme, was never used.
Admiral Grace Murray Hopper
In 1934, Grace received her PhD in Mathematics from Yale, then almost ten years later, joined the US Navy WAVES (Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service). She then began work on an electromechanical computer called the Harvard Mark II for the US Navy, this led to her inventing the compiler in 1953 which was a computer program that translated the English Language into computer processable machine code. As a result, Grace is recognised as the first to develop the theory of machine independent programming languages, her FLOW-MATIC programming language was extended to create COBOL, an early programming language still in use today.
Sister Mary Kenneth Keller
The first woman to earn a PhD in Computer Science, Sister Mary started her career in a very different way compared to many of the other women on this list. She became a nun in 1940 with the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. After taking her vows, Sister Mary studied for many years and went on to achieve her PhD in Computer Science in 1965. Later, she went on to create a computer science department at Clarke College in Dubuque, Iowa, encouraging working mothers attending her classes to bring their children along. Sister Mary even developed the BASIC (Beginners’ All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) programming language which is still used today to teach new programmers.
Joan Clarke
Joan graduated from Cambridge University with a double first in Mathematics and was then recruited to help at Bletchley Park during World War Two where the British were trying to decode German U-boat codes encrypted using the Enigma Machine. The team had many successes, but the German forces continually improved their encryptions making then harder to decode. This included adding a 4th wheel to the Enigma machine which multiplied the possible settings a further 26 times. However, in December 1942, the team at Bletchley Park broke the code, to unscramble the ‘Shark’ communications net. Joan’s efforts were recognised and rewarded in 1946 when she was awarded with an MBE.
Elsie Shutt
Elsie was hired to code for US Defence Contractor Raytheon in 1953, at a time when female programmers were commonplace. Elsie later told a historian that the programmers were evenly split between men and women, she even recalled being shocked that men were working as programmers because it was seen as women’s work! In 1957, unfortunately due to state law, Elise had to leave her job to raise her child. In response to this, Elsie took the bold move to open her own code consultancy, Computations Incorporated. She hired part-time workers who were stay-at-home mums that wanted the freedom to work while their children slept in the evening. This was an important milestone, especially when you consider women only won equal voting rights in the US 37 years earlier.
Mary Allen Wilkes
As a young girl, Mary was encouraged by her teachers to be a computer programmer which was a relatively unknown job in the 1950s. Mary however wanted to be a lawyer but was discouraged from this as it was a male-dominated career and she was told she wouldn’t be very good at the job. Discouraged, Mary left college and went to M.I.T. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) where she joined the Speech Recognition Project at the Lincoln Laboratory programming the IBM 704 and 709. She then joined the Digital Computer Group in 1961, as work first began on LINC, which was considered by many as the world’s first personal computer. Wilkes designed the first console prototype and wrote the operating manual, as well as co-authoring the LINC’s programming manual.
In 1972, once the LINC project was completed, Wilkes went to Harvard Law School and on completing her degree, worked for 40 years as a successful lawyer, contradicting the original advice of her teachers!
Katherine Johnson
Katherine started her career at NASA after graduating from college with a Bachelor of Science (BS) in Mathematics. When she joined, NASA was called the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. Katherine worked hard and with her great skills in mathematics, she landed the opportunity to work on projects such as the first man in space (Project Mercury), the first flight to the moon (Apollo 11) and a Mars mission (the Space Shuttle program). Unfortunately, during this time Katherine was fighting against discrimination from her white colleagues. There was even a film made focusing on the discrimination that Katherine and two other colleagues experienced during this time, ‘Hidden Figures’. In 2015, President Barack Obama felt that she needed to be recognised for her efforts and awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Jean Sammet
With a master’s degree in Mathematics, Jean joined IBM’s Data Systems Division in 1961 where she managed the Boston Programming Centre that later developed the original FORMAC (Formula Manipulation Compiler) and COBOL programming language which is still used on millions of mainframe computers worldwide. Jean’s hard work was recognised in 1974 when she became the first female president of the Association for Computing Machinery and later received IBM’s award for Outstanding Contribution. She went on to win even more recognition when she received the ACM Distinguished Service Award and the Association for Women in Computing’s Ada Lovelace Award.
Arlene Gwendolyn Lee
In Canada, in the 1960s, Arlene was a young black woman in a bi-racial relationship. She needed a job to save for a house as no one would rent to a bi-racial couple. When Arlene applied for a job in data processing and systems analytics, she had no idea that she would become one of the first female programmers in Canada. The company, Empire Life, was only looking to hire young men, but having convinced the interviewers to let her take the aptitude test, her results placed her in the 99th percentile and she became a programming analyst, leading computerisation projects for insurance and government institutions.
Dame Stephanie Shirley
After taking evening classes for many years, Shirley obtained a degree in Mathematics then boldly founded her own software company in 1962 named ‘F.I. Group PLC’. However, she was not known as Stephanie, she went by the name Steve to ensure she, and the company was taken seriously. Shirley employed a large number of female workers to enable everyone to have the same opportunities. In the 2000 New Year’s Honours list, she was made a Dame to celebrate her services to information technology. In 2018, at a time where Stephanie’s net worth was estimated to be around £150 million, she was appointed a fellow of the Computer History Museum.
Today’s Women in Tech
Sheryl Sandberg
In 1991, Sheryl graduated with a Bachelor of Applied Economics from Harvard College and co-founded Women in Economics and Government. She then went on to attend Harvard Business School, to earn her MBA and graduated in 1995. In 2007, Sheryl had a lucky encounter with Mark Zuckerberg at a Christmas Party, after talking for a while with the founder of Facebook, he offered her a job as chief operating officer. The company had just suffered a $56 million loss, but she helped Facebook recover and managed to increase profits to $18.5 billion by 2019. In December 2010, at TedWomen, Sheryl gave a talk that has been incredibly popular and controversial. She spoke about the gender imbalance in leadership roles, she believes that men are encouraged from a younger age to succeed whereas women are still encouraged to focus more on family. Sheryl is now worth $1.8 billion.
Susan Wojcicki
Susan received a Master of Science in Economics from the University of California and went on to work for Intel in the marketing department. In 1998, while at Intel, Google cofounders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, rented Susan’s garage to develop Google’s search engine. One year later, she was hired by the founders as senior vice president of Advertising and Commerce. By the end of 2006, she had been a key player in the acquisition of YouTube for $1.65 billion, becoming CEO of YouTube in 2014, building its worth to an estimated $90 billion. Susan is now worth $580 million.
Ginni Rometty
Having graduated in 1979 with a Batchelors in computer science and electrical engineering, Ginni began working at General Motors. A few years later, she moved to become a systems engineer at IBM. Working her way through the company, Ginni became senior vice president for sales, marketing and strategy before becoming IBM President and CEO in 2011. One year later, it was announced that she would become chairman as well. Unfortunately, at the start of 2020 it was revealed that Ginni would step down as chief executive, as IBM had struggled to achieve growth when other tech companies were flourishing.
Amy Hood
Amy earned her MBA from Harvard University then began working in investment banking at Goldman Sachs, later joining Microsoft in 2002. In 2013, after just over ten years of working at Microsoft in investor relations, she was awarded the role of CFO. In the seven years since Amy became CFO, Microsoft’s stock has more than tripled. Amy was listed as 26th on Forbes Power Women list 2019.
Carol Bartz
Carol started her career at the University of Wisconsin where, in 1971, she received a Batchelor’s Degree in Computer Science. In 1976, she began working at 3M, a large manufacturing company, she was the only woman in a division of 300 men. She became known to the business world in 1992 when she took on a new role as CEO of Autodesk, a software company providing software to architects and design agencies such as ourselves. Under her leadership, Autodesk increased its annual revenue from $285 million to more than $1.5 billion. In 2009, Carol became CEO of Yahoo where she led a dramatic restructure. She currently serves on the board of directors for Cisco, a software giant.
Cindy Rose
Cindy studied at Columbia University and New York Law School. This gained her a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science & Government and allowed her to become a Doctor of Law.
In 1998, Cindy joined The Walt Disney Company, serving at Vice President of Legal & Government Relations for three years then becoming Senior Vice President & Regional Managing Director of the UK, Ireland, Southern Europe & Middle East for a further six years. She then went on to become Senior Vice President & Managing Director of the Disney Interactive Media Group in London, staying in this role for two years.
The second part of Cindy’s career occurred at Virgin Media and Vodaphone UK, she first became Executive Director of Digital Entertainment at Virgin for almost four years then headed over to Vodaphone to become Managing Director of the Consumer Division.
Cindy Rose was recently appointed President of Microsoft Western Europe in October. She first joined Microsoft in July 2016 as CEO of Microsoft UK, remaining in this role for over four years before her promotion. She managed all this whilst raising four children.
Local woman in tech
Karen (Longdin) Poulter
Karen began her career as a Software Tester for iDOiNK technologies before becoming Test and Quality Manager, then Release Manager. Karen’s career took a big step when she became Active Director of ICT for Suffolk Police, then spending a further five years at Essex Police. In 2011 she joined Stansted Airport as IT Service Manager responsible for separating the IT and Infrastructure from Heathrow post acquisition and in successfully achieving this four months ahead of programme, was promoted to Head of IT.
In 2015, Karen returned to the East of England as Head of IT Development and Architecture at Awaze UK, a travel group which owns brands such as Hoseasons, Cottages.com and James Villas for four and a half years before moving to her current role at Hutchinson Ports as Head of ISD.
Our own woman in tech
Jemma Russell
Jemma has always been interested in computers and technology, whether it was playing games or doing tutorials on how to program. Jemma never considered a career in anything other than tech. Jemma chose the computing science degree at Staffordshire University which gave her the opportunity to work in Germany for a year as a Software Developer – a career highlight. Jemma recalls there being significantly fewer women in her year, roughly 10-20 within a year group of about 200 people. It seemed that there were more women in the modules for web design and online media but very few in the modules for networking, databases and programming.
Jemma joined CADS in 2015 after moving back to Norfolk and she readily embraced working with a variety of computer languages including C# within .NET, C++, Java, ColdFusion, and PHP. She felt that this role would teach her a lot, five years later, and Jemma confirms that to be true! Moving forward in her career, she hopes to continue expanding her skillset. She is now Lead Developer and Scrum Master for CADS’ AutoCAD-based retail space planning software StoreSpace which is used internationally by major grocery and convenience store retailers.
Jemma encourages other women to pursue a career in tech:
‘Don’t be put off by the larger number of male tech workers! Everyone has something unique to offer as a team needs diversity and different personalities in order to thrive! Just because you’re different to others, that’s not a bad thing. Do something you’re passionate about and you’ll find it more rewarding’.
Jemma Russell
There have been so many great women in tech over the years, from the female code breakers at Bletchley Park to our own Jemma Russell. We hope this article inspires others to pursue a career in tech whilst thanking those women already in the tech industry for their hard work.
C A Design Services is a retail consultancy that offers clients a turnkey solution to space optimisation including its StoreSpace space planning platform, StoreView 360 virtual tour software, surveying, visualisation and retail space planning resource and expertise. The company has a growing software development team comprising software developers, support engineers and testers based in Great Yarmouth and remotely and is always interested to hear from skilled software developers.
