Women in computer science

Computer science has its origins in the 19th century. The founder of this science and the first female programmer was Ada Lovelace with her algorithm for calculating Bernoulli numbers with the Analytical Engine calculating machine. From the beginning of the computer until the 1980s, programming was considered a “typical female profession”. The first electronic computer was used in 1942 for war purposes on behalf of the US Army. Especially during the Second World War, only women did programming, which is now hard to believe, as the computer science industry today only has a very small proportion of women. Back then, the reputation of a female programmer was not as special or outstanding as it is today, but rather that of a modern secretary.

Grace Hopper, an admiral in the US Navy, set a milestone with her work on the first fully electronic calculator Mark I or ASCC (Automatic Sequence Controller Calculator), she set a milestone in programming language. In 1952, she developed the first compiler (A-0) in 1952 and, with the FLOW-MATIC programming language and the associated compiler (1957), made significant contributions to the development of the for the development of the COBOL programming language. She achieved worldwide recognition with the programming language COBOL (“Common Business Oriented Language”). This was created in the early days of computer development, at the end of the 1950s and is still used today. The style of this programming language is strongly based on natural language and is primarily used for programming commercial applications. The US computer “ENIAC”, which was used to calculate ballistic ballistic tables, was also programmed by six women in the 1940s. Kathleen McNulty Mauchly Antonelli, Jean Bartik, Frances Elizabeth “Betty” Holberton, Marlyn Meltzer, Frances Spence and Ruth Teitelbaum were known as ENIAC women from this point on and were inducted into the Women in Technology International (WITI) Hall of Fame in 1997. They had been employed in Aberdeen at various computing machines and in management functions. had been employed in Aberdeen. The women received special introductory courses on the entire structure of the ENIAC as well as on the handling the IBM punched card devices for input/output. Furthermore, they were introduced to a block diagram notation method in in which the respective programs were to be described. As there were no manuals, they had to read the circuit diagrams of the read circuit diagrams of the system. Their programming instructors were the ENIAC developers themselves. Also thanks to the ladies of creation, the first landing of a man on the moon. This was only possible thanks to programs by female developers such as Katherine Johnson and Margaret Hamilton. Johnson calculated the flight path of the Apollo 11 mission, Hamilton wrote the Apollo flight software. They are also known as “Apollo’s women - heroines behind the moon landing”. In 1983, according to the US National Science Foundation, 37 percent of all IT students in the United States were female. Today, less than 20 percent of computer science graduates in the USA are female. In the 1980s in particular, many games were made especially for men and the typical stereotype nerd. Accordingly, families were more likely to buy computers for their sons than daughters and “being a nerd” became a male thing. But what about the female representatives of computer science today?

After the historical review, we now take a closer look at three current greats in computer science:

Jade Raymond

Jade Raymond stands for the gaming industry like no other and founded the independent developer studio Haven in March 2021. was founded. The Canadian was born in Montreal on August 28, 1975. During her childhood and youth, she developed an interest interest in computers and computer games in particular. This hobby gave rise to the desire to work in this and so she completed her degree in computer science at McGill University.
After Jade Raymond successfully completed her studies, she started her career at Sony Online Entertainment, where she worked as a programmer. as a programmer. At the time, she worked on the online versions of titles such as “Jeopardy!” and “Trivial Pursuit”. The first time she worked as a producer was on “The Sims Online”. After moving to Ubisoft Montreal, she became producer of “Assassins Creed” and became increasingly well-known in the gaming scene.

Marissa Mayer

Marissa Mayer was named one of the 50 most powerful women in the world by the business magazine Fortune in 2008 and one of the “10 Tech Leaders of Future”. The US-American was born on May 30, 1975 in Wisconsin. Even as a child, she was very interested in scientific subjects. She studied at Stanford University and worked for the UBS Research Lab after graduating. UBS research lab. In 1999, she joined Google as a programmer and 20th employee. There she works on services such as Google Search, Google Maps and Google Mail. She also worked at Google in product development with a focus on Google Search and became Vice President. Marissa Mayer also taught programming at Stanford University. In 2009, she received an honorary doctorate in programming. Finally, in 2012, she became the Managing Director of Yahoo.

“You can be good at technology and like fashion and art. You can be good at technology and be a jock. You can be good at technology and be a mom. You can do it your way, on your terms.”

Ina Schieferdecker

Ina Schieferdecker is the founding director of the Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society and head of the Department “Research for Digitalization and Innovation” at the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
The Berlin native was born on March 18, 1967 and began experimenting with her first small programs in her youth. After graduating from high school, she studied mathematical computer science at the Humboldt University of Berlin. Ina Schieferdecker then carried out research at the International Computer Science Institute in the USA and at CRIM in Canada. She then worked at the Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems. From 2003, she taught at the Technical University of Berlin and later headed the and later headed the specialist group there for model-based development and quality assurance of software-based systems.