Browse Books

Reviewer: Barbara Boucher Owens

Today, women hold less than 20 percent of the positions in computer science and programming. The detailed research for this book chronicles the shifting role gender has played in this field. In addition to her meticulous references, the author interviewed 52 women during the ten years she spent working on this book. The five chapters in the book lay out a timeline of the role of gender in computing. The story begins with the surprising history of women's strong contributions to secret projects during World War II; moves to the contributions of the earliest industrial programmers, the rapid inclusion and then exclusion of women in the field, and the emergence of a cottage industry of programmers in both the US and Great Britain; and ends with the current state of women in both academia and industry. The last 70 pages are appendices that include a list of the women interviewed, detailed footnotes for each chapter, and an extensive bibliography. The author brings each of the time periods to life through engaging stories from both literature and her own oral history interviews with the women who lived the history. The bulk of the interviewing ended in 2002, but the final chapter of the book looks at more current times through the lenses of academic women and the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (GHC) conferences, which include women from both industry and academia. The opening chapter sets the tone, describing the women who worked on computing projects during WWII as "neither intimidated by the noisy, room-sized machines that they encountered nor deterred by any sense that they were entering a masculine domain. ... [They conveyed] a sense of excitement, fun, and pride" (p. 11). Recently released stories have revealed that women who worked in England on the Colossus project, known as the Bletchley Park Wrens, participated fully in the detailed technology work, but were also forced to participate in rigorous physical training that was not required of the men on the project. In the US, the women participating in the ENIAC ballistics calculations project were largely professional mathematicians; they were regarded as professionals and known as the "computers." The next chapter covers the emerging profession of programmer and hiring criteria for programming jobs. In many cases, women were thought to be ideal because of their "attention to detail." One deterrent to women was the metric of number of lines of code produced rather the utility of the code itself. This seemed to favor males in both monetary reward and job promotion. The gender implications for women in computing were hardly clear in the large-scale computing developments of the 1960s and early 1970s. The third chapter highlights the "shift in programming methods from a largely forgotten period where women played a major innovative role to a more recent era that saw the rise of engineering as a metaphor [where males dominated] and the shrinking role of women" (p. 109). The penultimate chapter is a delightful recounting of the stories of two women in the 1950s and 1960s, one in Great Britain and the other in the US, who founded cottage industries employing stay-at-home mothers as ideal programmers. These stories underlined many of the issues facing women with families. Stephanie Shirley, the founder of Freelance Programmers Ltd., began signing her name as Steve in order to be taken seriously when she wrote to companies explaining her programming services. The final chapter focuses mainly on women computer scientists in academia. Much of the chapter covers ways in which social networks, such as computing societies, online forums like Systers, and GHC, mitigate the somewhat hostile academic climate for women. This is a must-read for gender researchers and computing historians. However, this book should be on every computing professional's shelf. The explanations of the shifting attitudes toward the roles of women can inform both practitioners and management, leading to a more equitable balance of gender in the computing workplace. Online Computing Reviews Service

Reviewer: Maxine Cohen

This is a well-researched look at the history of women in computing from the beginning of digital computing (around the time of the Second World War) until the more modern age (the late 20th century). It looks at this history from both the American and British perspectives. The book consists of five chapters: "Breaking Codes and Finding Trajectories: Women at the Dawn of the Digital Age"; "Seeking the Perfect Programmer: Gender and Skill in Early Data Processing"; "Software Crisis or Identity Crisis__?__ Gender, Labor, and Programming Methods"; "Female Entrepreneurs: Reimagining Software as a Business"; and "Gender in Academic Computing: Alternative Career Paths and Norms." The research included a series of 52 oral histories from women conducted in 2001 and 2002. It is archived as part of the IEEE Global History Network (http://www.ieeeghn.org). There are also 60 pages of notes and an 18-page bibliography. Having such a well-researched academic volume might give one the expectation that the material would be dry and boring. This is not the case at all. The book is filled with tidbits of history and fascinating reading. I found it interesting how, in the early decades of computing, women made up the majority of programmers. The precision required for the work seemed like a "natural" match for women. As the field redefined itself more in the direction of software engineering, the population of women dwindled and has never caught back up. An interesting section describes how women responded to and dealt with the unique characteristics of the computer field as it was initially growing. For example, two entrepreneurial women (Elsie Shutt and Stephanie Shirley) created freelance programming businesses. Their prime employees were women wanting to continue their professional lives while in the child-rearing stages, a very atypical combination. These women realized that programming really lent itself to telecommuting, making it well suited to part-time contract workers, also atypical at the time. They even employed tactics such as using sound effects in the home so it sounded like typing in an office and using masculine names. During this same time, the US and the UK both passed several laws requiring equal pay and eliminating the practice of firing pregnant women. Since computing was a relatively new field, professional organizations were also just starting up. ACM's openness was attractive to women. It provided support and allowed women to grown and learn professionally. Similar activities were also available through the IEEE and the British Computer Society (BCS). Many professional women found a place in this professional arena and some achieved high professional offices. Anita Borg started a mailing list (Systers) back in 1987, the first real community for women in computing. Her efforts culminated in the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology. She also joined ACM to sponsor the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing. In 2008, this conference became one of the first computer science conferences to offer free, on-site childcare. This book can be read by novices or experts in computing. Readers will enjoy learning about the progress of women in computing, the obstacles they faced, and the creative solutions that were generated. The well-known women in the field are in here, as well as lesser-known contributors. The author reveals the dynamics of the then-current culture. This book is good reading for anyone who would like to explore the challenges of setting policies and gain a better understanding of the gender dynamics of a scientific and technical workforce. More reviews about this item: Amazon Online Computing Reviews Service