Women in computing history

Abstract

Exciting inventions, innovative technology, human interaction, and intriguing politics fill computing history. However, the recorded history is mainly composed of male achievements and involvements, even though women have played substantial roles. This situation is not unusual. Most science fields are notorious for excluding, undervaluing, or overlooking the accomplishments of their female scientists [1, 16, 17, 22]. As J.A.N. Lee points out, it is up to the historians and others to remedy this imbalance (see this issue [14]). Some steps have been taken towards this goal through publishing biographies on women in technology [2, 5, 6, 8, 12, 13, 18, 20, 21, 23, 24], also see this issue [7], and through honoring the pioneers with various awards such as the GHC'97 Pioneering Awards (Figure 1), the WITI Hall of Fame, and the AWC Lovelace Award. A few online sites contain biographies of women in technology, shown in Table 1 below. However, even with these resources, many women who have contributed significantly to computer science are still to be discovered.