The Women
The following is a list of names of women I have accumulated with their biographies who played vital roles in the computer software industry in its birth:
- Ada Lovelace
- Adele Goldstine
- Adele Mildred (Milly Koss)
- Alexandra Illmer Forsythe
- Anne Van Vechten
- Annie Easley
- Dame Stephanie Shirley
- Elanor Kolchin
- Erna Schneider Hoover
- Ethel Marden
- Evelyn Boyd Granville
- Florence MacWilliams
- Fran Allen
- Grace Hopper
- Homé McAllister (Reitwiesner)
- Ida Rhodes
- Jean E. Sammett
- Joan Margaret Winters
- Joyce Curie Little
- Judy Clapp
- Lila Todd (Butler)
- Marie Bierstein (Malone)
- Ruth Rauschenberger (Ammlung)
- Thelma Estrin
- Willa Wyatt Sigmund
One of the earliest women who received limited credit is Ada Lovelace (1815-1852), a British mathematician and computer scientist. I first came across her name on a Facebook group, A girl’s guide to taking over the world. For International Women’s Day, the Facebook group posted pictures of successful women who had contributed to society. Though the picture is not on the Facebook page any longer, I searched Ada Lovelace in various references and found out that her work from the 1800s has been credited and she can be named the earliest computer programmer as she discovered that an algorithm can be processed by a machine (Yount, 1999). “Even though they were written 100 years before electronic computers were invented, Ada Lovelace’s instructions for Charles Babbage’s ‘analytical engine' have been called the
world’s first computer programs” (Yount, 1999, p. 127). After Lovelace’s passing in 1852 from cancer, the U.S. Department of Defense constructed, in the late 1970s, a “computer language for programming missiles, planes, and submarines and named it Ada in her honour” (Yount, 1999, p. 129).
world’s first computer programs” (Yount, 1999, p. 127). After Lovelace’s passing in 1852 from cancer, the U.S. Department of Defense constructed, in the late 1970s, a “computer language for programming missiles, planes, and submarines and named it Ada in her honour” (Yount, 1999, p. 129).
Adele Goldstine, an American computer scientist, played a role in working with the ENIAC project; she wrote ENIAC’s manual in 1946 (Fritz, 1996; Gurer, 1995/2002; Karnes & Stephens, 2002; Yale University, 2011). She helped to develop the object-oriented computing language, Smalltalk (Karnes & Stephens, 2002). Adele was also on a team with Mary Mauchly and Mildred Kramer, all three “mathematicians actively involved in programming ENIAC, and in recruiting and training the six appointees” (Gruer, 1995/2002, p. 178).
Adele Mildred Koss was an American computer programmer for the UNIVAC (Gurer, 1995/2002; Mirzeoff, 2013), the first commercial computer. Adele also played a key role in designing and the development of one of the first database systems that stored and received graphic images (Karnes & Stephens, 2002).
Adele Mildred Koss began her computing career with EMCC [Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation]/Remington Rand in 1950 and retired from Harvard University in 1996. In between she worked at Burroughs and Philco as a programmer and a consultant to CDC [Control Data Corporation], and at Raytheon. Her expertise includes data access and database software. She received a BA in mathematics from the University of Pennsylvania. Koss is a member of the IEEE Computer Society, the ACM, and the Association for Women in Computing. Her awards include a “pioneer award” at the 1997 Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing conference and the AWC’s Augusta Ada Lovelace Award in 2000. (Koss, 2003, p. 59)
Koss was hired in May 1950 at EMCC and was assigned to work with the Logical Design Software group. At EMCC, she met other women working for the engineering and programming group: Jean Bartik, Frances Betty Snyder-Holberton, Margery K. League, and Hildegard Nidecker (Koss, 2003).
An American computer scientist, Alexandra Illmer Forsythe (1918-1980) studied mathematics in college and graduate school, and then became interested in computing. During the 1960s and 1970s, she coauthored a series of textbooks on computer science (Yale University, 2011).
On the website, Greater IBM, I came across Anne Van Vechten, who was IBM’s pioneering woman. She was hired in 1935 for IBM as a Systems Service Engineer (Greater IBM, 2013). She convinced her CEO that women’s abilities were valuable in the field and thus began the initiative to hire another 24 women and train them.
Annie Easley, an American computer scientist, “developed and implemented computer code used in determining solar, wind, and energy projects for NASA. Her computer applications are used in the improvement of commercially available technology” (Karnes & Stephens, 2002, p. 198).
Stephanie Shirley, at the age of five was put on a train with her elder sister from Vienna to England for a new life. As she grew older and saw few opportunities for women in the working field, she decided to make a change and create her very own company, Freelance Programmers. Freelance Programmers was created in 1962 and composed of only women, until the equal rights law came into play in Britain in 1975 and male programmers were also hired to work for the company.
Our programmers — remember, only women, including gay and transgender — worked with pencil and paper to develop flowcharts defining each task to be done. And they then wrote code, usually machine code, sometimes binary code, which was then sent by mail to a data centre to be punched onto paper tape or card and then re-punched, in order to verify it. All this, before it ever got near a computer. That was programming in the early 1960s. (Shirley, 2015, TEDTalk)
Shirley signed her name as Steve Shirley on many contracts to compete in the maledominated field. Her company’s value rose and became valued at $3 billion, making her one of the richest women in England; 70 of her staff members also became millionaires when Freelance Programmers rose into the stock market (Shirley, 2015). Shirley’s website continues to be under the URL www.steveshirley.com.
Throughout my research IBM kept appearing in the index of almost all computer books and articles I researched investigating women in early computing. Though I did not find anything in the books, I was able to find a newspaper article (Bosker, 2013) online mentioning Elanor Kolchin who had the job of a computer for IBM in 1946. According to The Huffington Post, “she was Columbia Engineering Quarterly’s first-ever female contributor, and spent over two decades manning computers to complete astrophysics research at New York University” (Bosker, 2013, para. 1).
Erna Schneider Hoover, an American inventor, earned her degree in Mathematics from Yale University (Karnes & Stephens, 2002). While working as a researcher at Bell Laboraties,
she invented a computerized switching system for telephone traffic, to replace hard-wired mechanical switching equipment. For this ground-breaking achievement — the principles of which are still used today — she was awarded one of the first software patents ever issued (Patent #3,623,007, Nov. 23, 1971). At Bell Labs, she became the first female supervisor of a technical department.” (Yale University, 2011, section 8)
Ethel Marden programmed the SEAC (Standard Eastern Automatic Computer), one of the first stored program computers (Karnes & Stephens, 2002; Newman, 2010).
Evelyn Boyd Granville (1924-1980) was an American computer programmer who was one of the very first African Americans to earn her Mathematics degree from Yale University (Karnes & Stephens, 2002). She developed computer programs used for trajectory analysis in the Mercury Project (the first U.S. manned mission in space) and in the Apollo Project, that sent U.S. astronauts to the moon (Yale University, 2011).
Florence MacWilliams (1917-1990) was a British computer programmer who became known for writing “one of the most powerful theorems in coding theory” (Karnes & Stephens, 2002, p. 196). Her book, The Theory of Error-Correcting Codes, and coding equations are widely used by coding theorists everywhere.
Fran Allen was the first American woman to work at IBM’s T. J. Watson Research Laboratory and was considered a pioneer in compiler optimization (Karnes & Stephens, 2002).
Grace Hopper (1906 - 1992) has been mentioned frequently in a few books and articles (Beyer, 2009; Chun, 2011; Karnes & Stephens, 2002; Koss, 2003; Mirzeoff, 2013; Whitelaw, 1995), being cited as the first woman to create a programming language. In December of 1943, Hopper departed from her position as an associate professor at Vassar College and joined the Naval Reserve where she was assigned “to the Bureau of Ordnance (gunnery) computer project at Harvard University. She reported to Howard Aiken, the head of the project, on July 2, 1994, and got her first look at the MARK I, 51 feet long and 8 feet high - the country’s first modern computer” (Yount, 1999, p. 92). Grace Hopper and her colleagues operated the machines Mark I, II, and III and coined the term debugging after an incident with a moth that got stuck in a switch, creating mechanical failures. Hopper joined Mauchly and Eckert with the ENIAC team in 1949 where Hopper worked with her team to create programs that would solve the problems of the UNIVAC when it was created in 1952 (Yount, 1999).
For instance, each new program had to be entered into the machine, even though parts of many programs were the same. In 1952, Hopper devised a new type of program called a compiler, which allowed a computer to assemble its own programs from shorter routines stored in its memory. This not only saved time but eliminated errors introduced during retyping. Another problem was that the “languages” in which computer instructions had to be written were complex and required special training to understand. In 1957, Hopper designed a new language called Flowmatic, which used English words in both its data and its instructions. Flowmatic became one of the ancestors of COBOL (Common Business-Oriented Language). (Yount, 1999, p. 92)
Grace Hopper played an important role of holding a meeting with other professionals to decide on creating a new business language after Flowmatic. The development of COBOL was by a Short-Range Committee consisting of nine members from which three were women: Mary K. Hawes, Frances Holberton, and Jean E. Sammet, whose profile can be found in this paper (Gurer, 1995/2002). “Four other women worked on the ShortRange Committee at one time or another: Deborah Davidson from Sylvania Electric Products, Sue Knapp from Minneapolis-Honeywell, Nora Taylor from David Taylor Model Basin, and Gertrude Tierney from IBM” (Gurer, 1995/2002, p. 178).
When the ENIAC was moved to its new home in Aberdeen, Maryland in 1947, Ruth Lichterman from the original six was the only one who stayed at Aberdeen to help the ENIAC adjust. A new team of programmers joined Teitelbaum to work with the ENIAC: Gloria Gordon (Bolotsky), Ester Gersten, Winifred Smith (Jonas), Helen Greenman (Malone), Marie Bierstein (Malone), Lila Todd (Butler), and Homé McAllister (Fritz, 1996). Marie Malone’s profile can be found in this paper. Homé McAllister began her work of hand computing for firing tables at APG in July 1946 with Winifred (Wink) Smith. McAllister was later transferred to the IBM section where she wired boards for the tabulator and ran the sorter, reproducer, and the tabulator (Fritz, 1996). In an interview with Fritz (1996), McAllister shared that she, at first, did not want to be moved to work with the ENIAC but later enjoyed her time working with it.
Again I was upset a bit when they wanted to move me to the ENIAC. But move I did and again I fell in love with the work. I spent long hours trying to understand the “blueprints” and wiring diagrams for the ENIAC and to try to learn direct programming - the original mode of ENIAC operation. At the beginning I had very little direct contact with the machine, beyond using the IBM machines to prepare input and print output. I spent a lot of time learning how to understand and use flow charts and checking out flow charts for other coders. (Fritz, 1996, p. 24)
McAllister had the opportunity to work with the ENIAC, the EDVAC, and the ORDVAC.
Ida Rhodes (1900-1986) was a Ukrainian computer programmer. She was a pioneer in the development of the modern electronic digital computer as well as in its use for numerical calculations (Karnes & Stephens, 2002).
An American computer programmer (Gurer, 1995/2002; Mirzeoff, 2013) and leading expert on the history of programming languages, Jean E. Sammet developed FORMAC (Formula Manipulation Compiler), the first widely used language that could manipulate symbolic mathematics expressions. She was as well the first female president of the Association for Computing Machinery, also known as the ACM (Karnes & Stephens, 2002).
Joan Margaret Winters, an American computer programmer, designed and implemented SPINDEX II applications for the Department of Manuscripts and University Archives at Cornell. In 1976, she joined SHARE’s Human Factors Project, an IBM computer user group, and educated employees of IBM about the importance of software and conducting research into human factors and software tools (Karnes & Stephens, 2002).
An American computer scientist, Joyce Little developed one of Computer Science’s first curriculums (Gurer, 1995/2002; Karnes & Stephens, 2002). As well, she was an original programmer at Convair Aircraft Corporation in the Wind Tunnel Division (Karnes & Stephens, 2002).
She wrote programs to analyze data taken from models (e.g., airplanes, automobiles, radio towers) that were tested in an 8-foot by 12-foot wind tunnel. She wrote her programs in an assembly language, SOAP, which was run on an IBM 650 with punched cards. To ensure accurate and reliable results, a room full of 37 women using Frieden calculators calculated all the checkpoints to confirm the computer output. (Gurer, 1995/2002, p. 183)
Judy Clapp is an American computer programmer of the Whirlwind (Gurer, 1995/2002), considered the world’s first real-time control computer (Karnes & Stephens, 2002).
The first real-time control computer, and the first to use time-sharing, was the Whirlwind, developed at MIT. Several women were involved in the initial development work, including Judy Levenson (now Judy Clapp). Clapp had just received an M.S. degree in applied science from Harvard in the early fifties, when she started work on the Whirlwind, helping to program a prototype of one of the first non-numerical applications of computers: an air defense system that received inputs from radar, tracked flying aircraft, and directed the courses of other aircraft [2]. When programming of an operational version of the system was initiated, several hundred additional people were hired and taught to program in assembly language. About 20% of the programmers were women. Interestingly, some of the best programmers were music and English majors! (Gurer, 1995/2002, p. 177)
Fritz (1996) writes that Lila Todd was one of the key early women computermathematicians from 1942 until her retirement in 1979 (Fritz, 1996). Lila Todd was the supervisor that Kay McNulty reported to while working at the Moore School. She worked with wartime computing and had a role in developing and continuing to use computers after the world war. In an interview with Fritz (1996), Todd shared that in 1941, she was “the only female with a major in mathematics out of some 1,600 in the graduating class. The head of the math department didn’t think women should major in math” (Fritz, 1996, p. 14).
Lila Todd recalls being sent to Philadelphia by the assistant director of Ballistics Research Laboratory (BRL) to create trajectories or computational data for the paths that a bomb or missile would take. Todd was sent with five other women but only two members from their team of six remained after two months—Lila Todd and Willa Wyatt Sigmund—both working on the final-step of producing firing tables. In her interview with Fritz, Todd recalls working with four other women who were hired as supervisors, Florence Gealt, Ruth Rauschenberger (Ammlung), Patricia Griffin, and Mary Gibbons (Natrella) (Fritz, 1995). Ruth Ammlung’s profile can be found in this paper. Lila shared, “The workload continued to grow, and we moved to another building and increased to eight sections consisting of about 80 female and three male employees” (Fritz, 1995, p. 15). Before leaving for maternity leave, Todd transferred two of her best employees: Winifred (Wink) Smith to the ENIAC and Homé McAllister to the IBM section.
Lila Todd recalls being sent to Philadelphia by the assistant director of Ballistics Research Laboratory (BRL) to create trajectories or computational data for the paths that a bomb or missile would take. Todd was sent with five other women but only two members from their team of six remained after two months—Lila Todd and Willa Wyatt Sigmund—both working on the final-step of producing firing tables. In her interview with Fritz, Todd recalls working with four other women who were hired as supervisors, Florence Gealt, Ruth Rauschenberger (Ammlung), Patricia Griffin, and Mary Gibbons (Natrella) (Fritz, 1995). Ruth Ammlung’s profile can be found in this paper. Lila shared, “The workload continued to grow, and we moved to another building and increased to eight sections consisting of about 80 female and three male employees” (Fritz, 1995, p. 15). Before leaving for maternity leave, Todd transferred two of her best employees: Winifred (Wink) Smith to the ENIAC and Homé McAllister to the IBM section.
Lila Butler continued to work at BRL for an additional 28 years, retiring in July 1979. In addition to her work on the ENIAC in the early 50s, until ENIAC was closed down in October 1955, she served as a programmer for EDVAC, ORDVAC, and later with BRLESC I, a computer designed and built by the BRL staff, with engineering headed by John Gregory and software by Lloyd Campbell. Lila Butler played a significant role in the development and use of the FORAST software for BRLESC I. (Fritz, 1996, p. 15)
Marie Bierstein (Malone) was another computer programmer who worked with the ENIAC at BRL. Upon receiving her degree in French and Spanish (with one year of college math) in 1938 from Duke University, she applied to the Moore School where she was accepted (Fritz, 1996). Marie took the extensive math courses that were being taught by Adele Goldstein and began to work with other programmers doing trajectory calculations or creating calculations for paths missiles would take. She was supervised by Willa Wyatt and recalls working with Betty Snyder, Lila Butler, Barbara Bilsborough, and Ella Mae Henderson. After Marie’s maternity leave, Marie “returned to BRL at the beginning of 1953 and did some programs for the EDVAC and then the Bell Relay Computer. My association with BRL ended in 1954 when I resigned to join my husband, who had been transferred to Puerto Rico” (Fritz, 1996, p. 26). Helen Greenman (Malone), Marie Bierstein’s sister-in-law, also worked as a BRL ENIAC programmer.
Ruth Rauschenberger (Ammlung), an active employee doing trajectory computations during the time of World War II, had a very brief conversation with Fritz (1996) and shared that she earned her degree with a major in Mathematics and a minor in Science from Temple University in June of 1942. She found out about the job opportunity at the Moore School through the placement office at Temple University. Ruth shared,
I started at the Moore School in July 1942. After over three years involving alternating two-week periods of day and night shifts, our group was sent to Aberdeen in November 1945. I was able to get placed in the Bombing Table Section, where I worked until I retired in 1950 to raise a family. (Fritz, 1996, p. 14)
Thelma Estrin, an American engineer, was one of two engineers who, in Israel, designed and developed the WEIZAC, short for Weizmann Automatic Computer (Gurer, 1995/2002), “the world’s first large-scale electronic computer outside of the United States and Western Europe” (Karnes & Stephens, 2002, p. 196).
Estrin’s work prior to WEIZAC had been as a research engineer at Columbia University-Presbyterian Hospital, studying the electrical activity of the nervous system. Her work in the United States after WEIZAC turned toward applying the computer to bioengineering problems. In 1961, she received funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to set up the first computer facility in a medical school - the Data Processing Laboratory (DPL) - located at UCLA’s Brain Research Institute. DPL served as a computing laboratory in the area of nervous system research. (Gurer, 1995/2002, p. 178)
Willa Wyatt was one of only two women, the other being Lila Butler, who transferred to Pennsylvania and stayed there during the process of the development of the ENIAC in its new environment. She was a graduate in the 1939 class of the University of New Hampshire. She earned her degree in Mathematics with a minor in Business (Fritz, 1996).
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