The first computer programmers were women - Top Secret Rosies (documentary)

Oct 01, 2010 15:03


I would like to suggest the documentary Top Secret Rosies, which is available through APT (American Public Television, Inc).  This is a subject that is important to me as a female computer programmer.  I learned my first of over a dozen computer languages in 1978.  Every computer language I learned, whether in a class of from a book for work, ( Read more... )

women programmers, eniac

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Comments 7

teryl_brat42 October 2 2010, 02:16:15 UTC
That's awesome! Everyone knows women are smarter. ;)

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slamaina October 2 2010, 04:41:10 UTC
Maybe if more facts like this were more well known I would not have been in the minority in every computer, math, and engineering class I ever took. In high school I was the only girl in my computer classes and one of two girls in my math classes. In college I went for engineering and we started with 5 girls in a class of over 300. I know that much has changed since I was in school in the 80's but it still isn't anywhere close to 50/50.

Also in my first real job, I was the ONLY woman that had a technical job in the whole office. All the other women were secretaries or office managers.

Slam

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teryl_brat42 October 2 2010, 21:08:07 UTC
Yeah, I know the feeling. I'm the only woman in my unit in the military. It's not computer, but meteorology is a VERY male-driven field because it's math/physics intensive. My Calc and Phy classes are over 75% guys. There's actually only 5 of us in a class of 30 in Calc. Granted, white folks like me are a minority in those classes too. It seems the Asians and middle eastern ethnicities have the monopoly on those classes. A few from South America, too. I'm the only white chick in my Calc class.

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scarimor October 3 2010, 10:11:07 UTC
Many women worked at Station X in England during WWII on the computers breaking the Enigma code messages. The computers ran so hot that the "sheds" they were housed in warmed up and the women stripped down to their undies to operate them. Apparently it was quite an attraction as well as absolutely crucial to winning the war. :D

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slamaina October 3 2010, 12:59:46 UTC
I didn't know this either but at least it is not surprising to me that I don't know it. I have not extensively studied WWII or English history. I have studied the ENIAC.

I always like reading about women doing things that they aren't supposed to be good at. I am not sure where that stereotype started. You would think that women doing math in their undies would be something to be applauded and celebrated.

Slam

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scarimor October 4 2010, 08:11:05 UTC
Well you can be forgiven for not knowing much about Station X because the whole thing was still being kept secret until the 1970s :)

Bletchley Park is where it went on, and hundreds of people were sworn to secrecy during the war and kept that secret for decades afterwards. The hid the extent to which they had developed computers before anyone else did. Now of course there's a public museum there.

The 2001 film Enigma (starring Kate Winslet and co-produced by Mick Jagger!)) is set there.

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slamaina October 4 2010, 13:22:54 UTC
Well I understand the need for secrecy with military projects (I used to work for the Navy). What I don't understand with the ENIAC was that why once it was declassified the fact that women were not only involved but in crucial roles was covered up.

Slam

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