Women Programmers

There is a lot of talk about women "entering" the computer field. I find it somewhat humorous as women have been part of the computer world since the days of Charles Babbage, who some acknowledge as the father of computing. There is even a computer language named after his associate, Ada Lovelace. Admiral Grace Hopper has been acclaimed for much of her work with computers, including work leading to the COBOL language, one of the most popular languages of the middle to late 1900s. The Turing Award is equivalent to the Nobel Prize; it has been awarded to women.

When I was in the software business, women were considered the better programmers. I worked for some female managers and knew several who were division directors and presidents of companies. At Honeywell in the early 1960s the female programmers ranged in age from recent college graduates to women nearing retirement age. About 30-40% of the programmers I hired were women.

Yet, at some point near the end of the 20th century, the number of women in the business began to fade. Why I know not, although I've been thinking about this for a good while. The pay was good, there was little physical labor, the work was interesting and something that was changing the world.