DigitalRosh CONNECT: 10-Mar-2024 (Y24W11)

On Women’s Day 2024, we decided to salute women who had a significant contribution to the development of technology and that their names are not that known. “Women in Tech” created this very partial list:

1. Ada Lovelace (1815-1852)
   Ada is considered to be the first programmer because she wrote notes explaining the notion of a specific engine that could transform calculation into computation. She is one of the famous women in technology, and every second Tuesday in October is called “Ada Lovelace Day” to celebrate the achievements of women in STEM careers.
2. Grace Hopper (1906-1992)
   Grace served at the Naval Reserve, where she joined the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corp. She designed a compiler that translated programmer’s instructions into computer codes, and her division developed the first English language data. She also helped standardize the Navy’s computer languages.
3. Mary Keller (1913-1985)
   Mary is nominated as one of the famous women in technology for being the first woman to receive a Ph.D. in computer science.
4. Katherine Johnson (1918-2020)
   Katherine is well known for co-authoring 26 research reports that provide mathematic equations for machines. She is one of the heroes of the 2006 book “Hidden Figures” written by Margot Lee Shetterly and the movie with the same title, based on it. Both the book and the movie are warmly recommended.
5. Elizabeth Feinler (1931-)
   Elizabeth is well known for helping the Stanford Research Institute transition to the domain name system and introducing the domain name protocol. She is the one to thank for the dot coms, dot nets, and dot govs used daily.
6. Annie Easley (1933-2011)
   Annie Easley worked at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). She was one of four African Americans who worked there and developed and implemented a code that led to the development of the batteries used in hybrid cars. She is well known for encouraging women and people of her color to study and enter STEM fields.
7. Karen Sparck Jones (1935-2007)
   Karen is well known for working on information retrieval (IR) and introducing the IDF term to produce natural language for the search engines that we use daily.
8. Mary Wilkes (1937-)
   Mary worked with computers such as the IBM 709 and IBM 704. In 1961, she joined the digital computer group and contributed to the LNC development of TX-2, as she designed and wrote the operator manual for the final console design. She is known for helping develop the first personal computer and being the first person to have a PC in her home.
9. Adele Goldberg (1945-)
   Adele Goldberg is known for inspiring Steve Jobs’ creation of the first Apple computer, as without her, the Apple desktop environment may not look the way it does today.
10. Radia Perlman (1951-)
    Radia is known as the ‘mother of the internet’ for creating STP, which is fundamental for the operation of network bridges.

The gender gap is mentioned quite often, and it feels sometimes that there is no need to keep talking about this subject. However, in the UK, only 19% of those working in technology are females; in the USA, 27%, and 32% in the EU. In Israel, according to the Israeli Innovation Authority report, 35% of the high-tech workforce are females. When we let the numbers talk, it is very clear that the gap is not yet closed.

Read more about these inspirational women of DigitalRosh.