frsilentMar 8
Paul Turnbull has moved.🇨🇦

In an era when tech bros are ruining everything it's good to remember that before 1980s marketing attempted to drive women out of computing they pioneered it.

#InternationalWomensDay #computing #computerscience #computerhistory

https://www.gracehopper.com/blog/15-remarkable-women-programmers-who-transformed-the-tech-world

https://allthatsinteresting.com/margaret-hamilton

https://web.archive.org/web/20191130180008/https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/13/magazine/women-coding-computer-programming.html

Mar 8 at 5:44pmWeb
Show threadBobMar 8
@Chigaze My mother worked as a PDP programmer on the General Motors parts tracking system in the 1970s. She did that right after graduating with her Mathematics degree, since Computer Science wasn’t an option at her university yet.
Show threadPaul Turnbull has moved.🇨🇦Mar 8
@SensorLock That's really cool!
Show threadJona JoachimMar 8
@Chigaze I'd like to have Grace Hopper around to reassure us about AI
Show threadDeeAnn LittleMar 8
@Chigaze marketing was a huge problem but also at that time there was also a push out in schools happening (I was in U.S. California then). I signed up for Intro to Computer Science in high school (1984) and won a class seat for the next semester (it was an elective and first come first served). Before the semester started I was moved to Typing/Clerical with the explanation they needed the CS seat for "someone who could better use it". I got there (programming) eventually but it took longer.
Show threadDeeAnn LittleMar 8

@Chigaze I'd already had some prior experience as a child starting at about 10 years old (working with Tandy TRS-80) which was not very common for the time, but it still didn't count as far as the school was concerned.

Edit to add- I found out later it wasn't just me who experienced that.

Show threadDerek McAuleyMar 9
@Chigaze