Pioneering Women in Tech
The common perception of tech is that it is a male-dominated arena. The women responsible for major breakthroughs are often left out of the limelight and their achievements go unpublicised. This absence of role models has a knock-on effect on young girls as they think about their career and is a major contributing factor in the gender imbalance we see today across STEM industries.
The reality of the situation, of course, couldn’t be more different. Trailblazing women have long worked behind the scenes, playing an integral role in groundbreaking tech developments we take for granted today.
To celebrate International Women’s Day, we’ve picked out just a few of the many historic women in tech that deserve everyone’s recognition.
Ada Lovelace (1815–1852)
Credited as the first ever computer programmer, Ada Lovelace is irrefutably one of the most important figures in tech. Daughter of the famous English poet Lord Byron, Lovelace was steered by her mother towards a career in mathematics, where she excelled.
Lovelace’s most recognised achievements came with her work alongside her friend and mentor Charles Babbage on his mechanical all-purpose computer, known as the Analytical Engine. She recognised the machine’s potential for far more than mathematical calculations, and subsequently published the world’s first computer algorithm. The concept of a computer operating system was born out of this breakthrough, making Lovelace the first ever computer programmer.
Grace Hopper (1906–1992)
Not only was she a pioneering computer scientist, Grace Hopper was also a United States Navy rear admiral. Before joining the military she had graduated from Vassar College in Maths and Physics in 1928, and went on to teach at Yale, earning her PhD.
Grace was instrumental in the development of the UNIVAC I, which became one of the first commercially available computers in the US. She is also credited as creating the first ever compiler, and went on to create a number of compiler-based programming languages, including FLOW-MATIC, which was the first English-based data processing language, leading to her developing COBOL (COmmon Business-Oriented Language). Despite dating back to the 1950s, COBOL is still widely used today, with 43% of US banks’ systems built using the language.
A true sign of the times that Hopper was working in came in 1969, when the US Data Processing Management Association awarded its first annual ‘Man of the Year’ Award. Grace was named the winner, yet the award still referred to her as a man.
Hedy Lamarr (1914–2000)
Many people know Hedy Lamarr as a glamourous star of Hollywood’s Golden Age, acting in films alongside Clark Gable and James Stewart. However, sick of being typecast as an exotic seductress, she turned to inventing as a more challenging outlet for her talents.
During WWII, she developed a jam-proof radio guidance system for torpedos, before patenting a more general frequency-hopping, spread-spectrum technology. This paved the way for the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technologies that are an essential component of countless consumer devices and large-scale international infrastructure today.
Katherine Johnson (1918 — ), Mary Jackson (1921 — 2005) and Dorothy Vaughan (1910 — 2008)
Movie audiences may recognise these three names, as they were the subject of 2016’s critically acclaimed Hidden Figures. Nominated for three Academy Awards, the movie tells the story of three African American women’s work at NASA that was critical to the success of several missions during the Space Race — most notably, helping astronaut John Glenn become the first American to orbit the earth.
Johnson, Jackson and Vaughan were integral figures in the American space program throughout their careers. Jackson was NASA’s first African American female engineer, while Vaughan was the agency’s first African American manager. John Glenn had such faith in Johnson’s calculations that he asked for her personally to check the complex trajectory calculations in place to bring him back down to earth after his first orbital mission.
Radia Perlman (1951 — )
Radia Perlman has become known as the Mother of the Internet (a name she doesn’t actually like), thanks to her invention of the spanning-tree protocol (STP), which is a fundamental to the operation of network bridges. She has also carried out extensive work on link-state routing protocols, making her one of the most important figures in digital communication.
Now working at Dell, Perlman holds more than 100 patents, and is also responsible for championing educating children in computer programming, having invented the child-friendly version of the robotics language LOGO, called TORTIS (Toddler’s Own Recursive Turtle Interpreter System).
Carol Shaw (1955 — )
Gamers all over the world have Carol Shaw to thank for pioneering some of the most iconic early titles. Shaw was one of the first female designers in the video game industry, beginning her career at Atari in 1978. There, she designed the games 3-D Tic-Tac-Toe and Super Breakout. In 1982 she moved to Activision, where she developed the classic title River Raid, which was a major hit for the company, becoming a much loved classic.
Victoria Alonso (1965 — )
As Executive Vice President of Physical Production at Marvel Studios, Victoria Alonso has become one of the leading figures in VFX, despite the industry having a reputation as a boys’ club. Her work on the Marvel Cinematic Universe has seen her oversee effects in blockbusters such as The Avengers and Guardians of Galaxy series. These not only generated billions of dollars at the box office, but also helped shape the overall direction of superhero movie franchises.
Her work in the VFX industry has been widely lauded, with Alonso winning the Visual Effects Society Visionary Award 2017.
The sheer number of groundbreaking women across all areas of tech made drawing up a shortlist quite a challenge. Dates like International Women’s Day can hopefully help shine a spotlight on the people behind tech breakthroughs like those listed above, who haven’t received the universal recognition that they deserve.
