Female Tech Heroes!
To celebrate International Women’s Day, let us salute these tech women who are pioneering social change. It was definitely more of that girl power feels and yes, as Queen B says, they can run the world. But do you really know what women can do?
Back then, there were always women behind men’s backs. Women come hand in hand with progress and there were surely a lot of women participation in history, if you just know.
Even in the earliest technology and in early days of computer, women shared the limelight. As Charles Babbage was designing the programmable engine, Ada Lovelace provided the algorithms to Babbage’s Analytical Engine that enabled it to perform tasks. With her efforts, Lovelace figured out a science of music. Such advances needed people that are a bit visionary.
Ada Lovelace
Female Tech Heroes (Source: irishtimes)
During the World War II, many women were involved in munitions factories as radio operators, in farms and became lab technicians.
The story of Grace Murray Hopper was also notable during post-war times where she worked on IBM’s Mark I computer at Harvard. She became an admiral in US Navy developing a compiler that translates English into a machine code, thus, the becoming of the Cobol programming language.
Grace Murray Hopper
Female Tech Heroes (Source: Telegraph)
A group of women also made history working in the University of Pennsylvania, as they developed the world’s first programmable general purpose electronic computer, the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC).
Even from Hollywood, famous actress Hedy Lamarr lead and co-invented the Radio Transmitter used in military communications. She was one known unsung tech pioneer that achieved technological milestones in the 1930s to 40s.
Hedy Lamarr
Female Tech Heroes (Source: contre-dits)
In 1962, as businesswoman, Dame Stephanie Shirley, who arrived in the UK as a refugee fleeing the Nazis, established Freelance Programmers, consisting women programmers. They later founded the FI Group giving women responsibilities and had later on change the policy of equal opportunity legislation.
Dame Stephanie Shirley
Female Tech Heroes (Source: bl)
Now, gender bias can still be seen in the computer programming field which came from cultural differences and as such, institutions must instill such equality. There has really no proof that women can’t be in technology and it can be even traced back in history.
Many society groups today are promoting partnerships to inspire women to work on computer jobs, web development and take interest in digital technology. Schools must play a vital role to inspire girls as education is the foundation of developing technology.
Recently, celebrity role models such as Karlie Kloss formed partnership with New York’s Flatiron School Pre-college Academy to encourage young women to apply for scholarships in software engineering. Organizations like the Digital Cookie platform now allows girls to create web pages and code via apps. They partner with tech companies like Dell and Visa to build a pipeline of female technology employees.
Karlie Kloss
Female Tech Heroes (Source: Flatiron School via hercampus)
It’s really time to bring back the glorious days of women. They can make developments. They will deliver success and make technological innovations, because progress, per se, should not be mutually exclusive.
So yes, for women empowerment. Women can drive, too, the technological advancements of the future.
