The first computer programmers were women.

The first computer programmers were women.

How women started the computer science field, and how they were pushed out.

By Anne Kuckertz

The day the Apollo 11 landed on the moon wasn’t just a giant leap for mankind but for women in computing as well. Mere minutes before Neil Armstrong’s boots touched the rocky surface, the lunar mission nearly failed. Had it not been for Margaret Hamilton’s revolutionary code, the two most famous astronauts would either have aborted their mission before landing or crashed into the lunar exterior.

With just three minutes to go before they needed to dock, the communication lines between the lunar module and mission control back in Houston were a buzz with male voices. All was going as planned until the screens onboard the lunar module light up with a warning. The error code “1202” flashed across the astronauts’ computer. They were prepared for some errors, but they were unfamiliar with this particular warning and had to radio mission control for help.

Margaret Hamilton listened with dread, crowded around an intercom speaker with her team. She recognized the code right away, she wrote it.

Hamilton entered the computer science field when it was still in its infancy. She was the first computer scientist hired for the project that would send a man to the moon. Initially she was given the assignments that everyone thought unimportant, working on the error codes. Her male superiors were so confident in their programming abilities that they figured the computer would never malfunction. But soon Hamilton’s propensity for detail and anticipating/addressing issues in code made her stand out amongst her male colleagues. She was quickly promoted to to leading the team, focused on programming the computers on board the lunar module. She was the one who led her staff to write the code that recognized the 1202 error and handle it, preventing the Apollo 11 mission from failing.

Despite her pivotal role, Hamilton was not recognized for her contribution to the project until 2016 when President Barack Obama awarded her the Medal of Freedom. It’s been fifty-two years since the Apollo 11 mission was a success and only twenty five percent of those in the American computing workforce are women. Given the current lack of female representation, it might be surprising to learn that this field was mostly started by women.

In the 1940s, when the first digital computer was being designed to compute missile trajectory calculations, six women were tasked with programming it. Men during this period viewed programming as secretarial work and viewed working with computer hardware as the preferable job. And so, intelligent women completed complex calculus and translated it to instructions that a 30-ton computer could understand, all while being thought of as secretaries

As the demand for computer programmers grew, women began finding more and more jobs in the computing industry. In the 50s and 60s, companies hired based on aptitude, anyone who could pass a logic test was eligible to be hired. And so, the programming field became a 50-50 split between men and women and it was now obvious that software design was crucial. So crucial, in fact, that around this time Margaret Hamilton coined the term “software engineering”, designating coding as an engineering discipline in its own right.

But with this shift in thinking came a shift in hiring and workplace cultural practices. Hardware was no longer seen as the most important. And with the rise of personal computers, boys were more likely to receive a computer as a gift. As men were encouraged by society to play more video and computer games that introduced them early on to core coding concepts, young girls were steered more towards traditionally female toys such as dolls and play kitchens. So, when everyone arrived at college, the boys were more likely to already be familiar with computer programming. This created a culture that was unforgiving to novices and gave rise to the stereotypical view that computer programmers were nerdy men who had spent their childhood playing video games. Unfortunately, this cause many women in the 80s and 90s, to be pushed out of the field they created.

Today that trend continues with a decreased number of women hired for software engineering roles. Sadly, only 32.5% of employees hired in 2019 by Google for technical positions were women. Facebook was similar, clocking in at 35%. For Amazon it was 27% and Microsoft was 19%.

Some argue that this decrease in female hiring can be attributed to decreased interest in computer science amongst the female population. But it’s not computer science itself that many women are disinterested in. It’s the culture of coding. Popular culture has helped create an image of what a coder should be. Geeky, slightly antisocial, and male. Video games are designed for men and pivotal pieces of popular culture like Star Trek, Star Wars, and Tron were made with men in mind. But there are little things educators can do to include women in the world of computing. Something as simple as avoiding posters depicting pop culture references to shows like Star Trek in classrooms and instead taking on a neutral atmosphere in classrooms, increases female interest. And offering computer science tracks in college based off previous experience gives students who are new to the field an opportunity to catch up to their peers were exposed to computer programming from a young age.

And as is required when trying to increase representation of any particular group in any particular field, we need more female role models. And what better role models than those we can pull straight from history? Ada Lovelace, Grace Hopper, and Margaret Hamilton are just a few of the women who made meaningful contributions to the technology that controls our cars, phones, TVs, computers, and even our appliances. By discouraging women from entering the field, we are keeping a whole cohort of competent programmers who, like their female predecessors will shape the field in earth shattering ways.