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My scientific specialty is chronobiology (circadian rhythms and photoperiodism), with additional interests in comparative physiology, animal behavior and evolution. I am not an MD so I cannot diagnose and treat your sleep problems. As well as writing this blog, I am also the Online Discussion Expert for PLoS. This is a personal blog and opinions within it in no way reflect the policies of PLoS. You can contact me at: Coturnix@gmail.com

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Do you know who programmed the first true computer (the ENIAC)?

Category: History of Science
Posted on: January 13, 2008 8:37 PM, by Coturnix

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Comments

stories like this one are reasonably well known in computer programmers' circles, yes, although i hadn't encountered this particular one before myself. (us computer geeks also tend to pay Adm. Grace Hopper her proper respects; most of us have even forgiven her for inventing COBOL.)

the earliest computer pioneers worked, by historical happenstance, during world war two. the gender-historical results of that were much as the article describes --- a lot of them were women, more than would have been the case had it been peacetime during that era, and most of them never got their proper credit until a generation or two afterwards; some of them still haven't.

that said, computer-related fields even today tend to be unreasonably male dominated for reasons mostly to do with culture and sociology --- which us geeks in 'em can't seem to wrap our heads around enough to fix, unfortunately. programming, by its nature, ought to be among the more egalitarian things to do, but isn't. this is regrettable, but if i knew how to fix it, i wouldn't be whining about it on random blogs.

since it's a sociological problem, and since a lot of us geeks are terminally socially inept (that stereotype has more truth to it than i'd like), and since that social ineptness is a large factor in both creating and perpetuating the problem as well as a hindrance to its solution --- i see no way it can be solved from inside the field. social or economical pressures from outside it might do it; perhaps the current wave of outsourcing to India and China might help, provided those countries' cultural misogynies can be overcome.

Posted by: Nomen Nescio | January 14, 2008 9:31 AM