Women & Computing at Scottish Ruby

This is a co-presented talk with [Elise Worthy](https://speakerdeck.com/eliseworthy/).

Computer programming was once seen as "women's work." Ada Lovelace, Grace Hopper, Adele Goldberg, and others played pivotal roles in paving the way for today's computing professions. So why then do we see so few women in our community? We'll cover the history of women in computing, possible causes of the gender imbalance, and ideas for how our community can shape a future that includes more women.

Transcript

1. the history of women in computing Sunday, May 12, 13
2. Elise Worthy @eliseworthy Sunday, May 12, 13
3. Sunday, May 12, 13
4. <3 *anonymous* Sunday, May 12, 13
5. Jessica Lynn Suttles @jlsuttles Sunday, May 12, 13
6. Sunday, May 12, 13
7. Sunday, May 12, 13
8. Rails Girls LA Sunday, May 12, 13
9. the history of women in computing Sunday, May 12, 13
10. Sunday, May 12, 13
11. 1800s Sunday, May 12, 13
12. Sunday, May 12, 13
13. Jacquard Loom 1801 Sunday, May 12, 13
14. Analytical Engine 1837 Sunday, May 12, 13
15. Ada Lovelace Sunday, May 12, 13
16. the first program. Sunday, May 12, 13
17. the first program. Sunday, May 12, 13
18. Lord Byron Sunday, May 12, 13
19. “Love will find a way through paths where wolves fear to prey.” Sunday, May 12, 13
20. Sunday, May 12, 13
21. Sunday, May 12, 13
22. Sunday, May 12, 13
23. 1940s Sunday, May 12, 13
24. Sunday, May 12, 13
25. Sunday, May 12, 13
26. 1942 Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service Sunday, May 12, 13
27. Sunday, May 12, 13
28. Sunday, May 12, 13
29. computer historically means ‘one who computes’ Sunday, May 12, 13
30. during WWII human computers were used to calculate ballistic trajectories Sunday, May 12, 13
31. Sunday, May 12, 13
32. these human computers were almost exclusively women Sunday, May 12, 13
33. Sunday, May 12, 13
34. Sunday, May 12, 13
35. Sunday, May 12, 13
36. Sunday, May 12, 13
37. Sunday, May 12, 13
38. Sunday, May 12, 13
39. Sunday, May 12, 13
40. Sunday, May 12, 13
41. Sunday, May 12, 13
42. Sunday, May 12, 13
43. human computers took 40 hours to calculate a 60 second trajectory Sunday, May 12, 13
44. the differential analyzer sped up these calculations by mechanical calculation Sunday, May 12, 13
45. Sunday, May 12, 13
46. the differential analyzer took 15 minutes to calculate a 60 second trajectory Sunday, May 12, 13
47. Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer Sunday, May 12, 13
48. ENIAC was the first electronic general computer, funded by the US Army to make these calculations faster Sunday, May 12, 13
49. Sunday, May 12, 13
50. the ENIAC took seconds to calculate a 60 second trajectory Sunday, May 12, 13
51. in 1944, women human computers were hired to ‘set up’ the ENIAC to perform the calculations they had been doing by hand Sunday, May 12, 13
52. Sunday, May 12, 13
53. in the 1940’s the idea was prevalent that the development of hardware was the real business of computing Sunday, May 12, 13
54. Jon von Neuman said coding was a “static” process–one that could be performed by a low-level clerical worker Sunday, May 12, 13
55. Maurice Wilkes said, “It had not occurred to me that there was going to be an difficulty about getting programs working.” Sunday, May 12, 13
56. the women learned to ‘set up’ the ENIAC by studying block diagrams Sunday, May 12, 13
57. Sunday, May 12, 13
58. Sunday, May 12, 13
59. ENIAC had 18,000 vacuum tubes 20 accumulators 200 decade counters Sunday, May 12, 13
60. Sunday, May 12, 13
61. the women were integral to making the machine perform the intended calculations Sunday, May 12, 13
62. the women could debug the ENIAC down to the one failing vacuum tube out of 18,000 Sunday, May 12, 13
63. they worked around the clock for the first public demonstration to make sure that it went according to plan Sunday, May 12, 13
64. after the successful public demonstration, the women were not invited to the celebration dinner Sunday, May 12, 13
65. the women were also never given credit in press releases and were cropped out of photos Sunday, May 12, 13
66. Sunday, May 12, 13
67. it wasn’t until the 1990s that the women’s accomplishments were discovered and given the credit they deserved Sunday, May 12, 13
68. Sunday, May 12, 13
69. 1942 Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service Sunday, May 12, 13
70. Admiral Grace Hopper Sunday, May 12, 13
71. Grace post-war Sunday, May 12, 13
72. Sunday, May 12, 13
73. the first compiler. Sunday, May 12, 13
74. the first compiler. Sunday, May 12, 13
75. Mother of COBOL Sunday, May 12, 13
76. one of the first programming languages. Sunday, May 12, 13
77. one of the first programming languages. *Lisp and Fortran in the same 3-year period. Sunday, May 12, 13
78. org xor ax, ax mov ds, ax mov si, msg boot_loop:lodsb or al, al jz go_flag mov ah, 0x0E int 0x10 jmp boot_loop go_flag: jmp go_flag msg db 'Hello, world', 13, 10, 0 times 510-($-$$) db 0 db 0x55 db 0xAA Sunday, May 12, 13
79. MAIN-LOGIC SECTION. DISPLAY "Hello, world" STOP RUN. Sunday, May 12, 13
80. puts “Hello, World” Sunday, May 12, 13
81. Sunday, May 12, 13
82. The beginning of the stereotypical software engineer. Sunday, May 12, 13
83. in the 1950’s the use of computers expanded beyond scientific use and computing entered the business world Sunday, May 12, 13
84. at first, the high demand for computer personnel left little room for sexual discrimination in hiring Sunday, May 12, 13
85. hiring was hard: there were no formal training programs, no certification programs, no university programs Sunday, May 12, 13
86. gender discrimination as a function of historical accident obstacles began to stack up against women Sunday, May 12, 13
87. aptitude tests began to be widely used, and they relied heavily on mathematical and logical skills Sunday, May 12, 13
88. personality tests began to be widely used, and they favored male traits Sunday, May 12, 13
89. programmers had to work at night to get unlimited access to the machines Sunday, May 12, 13
90. many company policies did not allow women on the premises at night Sunday, May 12, 13
91. government-subsidized vocational programs targeted women, but did not provide proper training Sunday, May 12, 13
92. programmers were given an unprecedented amount of freedom, and they encroached on the domains of operational managers Sunday, May 12, 13
93. managers critiqued programming for being and art and not yet a science Sunday, May 12, 13
94. at this time we also see the start of the movement to ‘professionalize’ computing Sunday, May 12, 13
95. this partially means distancing the ‘programmer’ from the low status and gender associations of the ‘coder’ Sunday, May 12, 13
96. Sunday, May 12, 13
97. "It's just like planning a dinner. You have to plan ahead and schedule everything so it's ready when you need it. Programming requires patience and the ability to handle detail. Women are 'naturals' at computer programming." Sunday, May 12, 13
98. once the precent was set, the boy’s club self perpetuated and carried through to current day Sunday, May 12, 13
99. Sunday, May 12, 13
100. learn more! Sunday, May 12, 13
101. so how can we change the future? let’s look at some programs that have worked. Sunday, May 12, 13
102. 1995 Sunday, May 12, 13
103. Carnegie Mellon University Sunday, May 12, 13
104. Jane Margolis is a social scientist who studies gender and education Allan Fisher is the founding dean of the CMU undergraduate program in computer science Sunday, May 12, 13
105. they began a study at CMU to understand the gender imbalance Sunday, May 12, 13
106. over the period of 5 years they interviewed 100 computer science students of both genders Sunday, May 12, 13
107. part way through the study they made some changes to admission standards Sunday, May 12, 13
108. high GRE scores + emphasis on leadership - prior programming experience + catch-up courses Sunday, May 12, 13
109. Sunday, May 12, 13
110. Sunday, May 12, 13
111. learn more! Sunday, May 12, 13
112. 2006 Sunday, May 12, 13
113. Maria Klawe became president of Harvey Mudd College Sunday, May 12, 13
114. introductory courses split up students with previous experience and students without Sunday, May 12, 13
115. first-year students attend a giant conference for women in computing Sunday, May 12, 13
116. there are women instructors Sunday, May 12, 13
117. nearly 20% more women are earning computer science degrees at Harvey Mudd than before Maria Klawe became president Sunday, May 12, 13
118. learn more! Sunday, May 12, 13
119. 2013 Sunday, May 12, 13
120. http://railsgirls.com http://railsbridge.org http://girldevelopit.com Sunday, May 12, 13
121. 2014 Sunday, May 12, 13
122. Sunday, May 12, 13
123. We have accepted: Diversity in the programming community helps everyone. Sunday, May 12, 13
124. We have ensured: The Ruby community is inviting to new programmers. Sunday, May 12, 13
125. We have realized: We are not in an elite club. Anyone can join in. Sunday, May 12, 13
126. We have ensured: The Ruby community fights to retain its members. Sunday, May 12, 13
127. We have realized: That ‘good programmers’ come in many forms, and may not think or look like us. Sunday, May 12, 13
128. So how can we change the future? Be respectful & encourage others to be respectful Sunday, May 12, 13
129. “If you think you don’t have biases, that’s your biggest bias.” - @avdi Sunday, May 12, 13
130. http:// rubyrogues.com/ 101-rr-diversity-with- ashe-dryden/ Sunday, May 12, 13
131. http://confreaks.com/ videos/1089- madisonruby2012- anti-opression-101 Sunday, May 12, 13
132. Sunday, May 12, 13
133. Thank you. @eliseworthy & @jlsuttles Sunday, May 12, 13