Computing the Role that Women Hold in the Technology and Computing Fields

This research was conducted as a thesis project to study what roles women have played in information technology over time, how those roles have changed over time, and what caused those roles to change. It was also to study how personal life experiences may have affected their roles and careers in the technology field. Influential women in IT of the past were studied and compared to determine any common factors between them

Dynamics of Gender Bias in Computing

Gender bias in computing is a hard problem that has resisted decades of research. One obstacle has been the absence of systematic data that might indicate when gender bias emerged in computing and how it has changed. This article presents a new dataset (N=50,000) focusing on formative years of computing as a profession (1950-1980) when U.S. government workforce statistics are thin or non-existent. This longitudinal dataset, based on archival records from six computer user groups (SHARE, USE, and others) and ACM conference attendees and membership rosters, revises commonly held conjectures that gender bias in computing emerged during professionalization of computer science in the 1960s or 1970s and that there was a 'linear' one-time onset of gender bias to the present. Such a linear view also lent support to the "pipeline" model of computing's "losing" women at successive career stages. Instead, this dataset reveals three distinct periods of gender bias in computing and so invites temporally distinct explanations for these changing dynamics. It significantly revises both scholarly assessment and popular understanding about gender bias in computing. It also draws attention to diversity within computing. One consequence of this research for CS reform efforts today is data-driven recognition that legacies of gender bias beginning in the mid-1980s (not in earlier decades) is the problem. A second consequence is correcting the public image of computer science: this research shows that gender bias is a contingent aspect of professional computing, not an intrinsic or permanent one.Comment: 14 pages, 8 figure

Mujeres en TIC: Una historia de pioneras ocultas/menoscabadas y omisiones en la bibliografía = Women in ICT: A history of hidden/undermined pioneers and omissions in bibliography

La ciencia y la tecnología son reconocidas como fuerzas motrices del desarrollo económico y social, ya que están en el origen de la innovación, es decir, de la aplicación del conocimiento y la tecnología generados en soluciones reales que mejoran el bienestar de las personas. Aunque los nuevos conocimientos potencialmente pueden beneficiar a todas las personas, es importante reconocer que no todas tienen las mismas necesidades y problemáticas, por el contrario, estas necesidades son diversas y varían según características como el sexo, la edad, el grupo social, entre otras. El enfoque de género propone considerar estas diferencias proporcionando un marco para mejorar la representación y participación en la generación del conocimiento y la capacidad diferencial para atender estas necesidades y para identificar intervenciones y soluciones apropiadas para los distintos grupos.Fil: Henning, Gabriela Patricia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Santa Fe. Instituto de Desarrollo Tecnológico para la Industria Química. Universidad Nacional del Litoral. Instituto de Desarrollo Tecnológico para la Industria Química; Argentin

Women in ICT: A history of hidden/undermined pioneers and omissions in bibliography

[ES] Este trabajo analiza algunas dimensiones de la brecha de género en el campo de las TIC. Ésta no puede comprenderse en forma cabal, si no se reconoce cuál ha sido la historia de la mujer en la disciplina. Esta es una historia de mujeres invisibles, opacadas, a quienes se les negaron las posiciones de liderazgo o se les dificultó sobremanera alcanzarlas. También expone una situación donde la negación de la mujer se llevó al extremo. Tal es el caso de la Inteligencia Artificial y el taller que le dio origen como disciplina, configurando un universo masculino que se manifiesta desde las casi nulas posiciones de liderazgo, hasta la bibliografía sesgada que es discutida en el artículo.[EN] This contribution analyzes some dimensions of the gender gap in the ICT field. This problem cannot be fully understood without recognizing the history of women in the discipline. This is a story of invisible, opaque women, who were denied leadership positions or had great difficulty in reaching them. It also exposes a situation where the denial of women was carried to the extreme. Such is the case of Artificial Intelligence and the workshop that gave rise to it as a discipline. This birth configured a masculine universe that manifests itself from the almost null positions of leadership, to the biased bibliography that is discussed in the article