On Ada Lovelace Day: A tribute to WIT
Tuesday, March 24, 2009 at 06:15AM Today is Ada Lovelace Day, celebrating the woman who first conceived of general-purpose computing and who is regarded as the first programmer. On this day, bloggers from around the world are writing about women in technology who inspire them.
On Ada Lovelace Day, I’m writing about a group of women called Women In Technology. This small group formed in Sydney in the early ’80s. WIT’s core consisted of a couple of engineers, two astrophysicists, a nuclear physicist, a microbiologist and a computer programmer (me).
We came together to provide support to one another, share ideas, and figure out ways to get more women involved in technical professions. At work, each of us was the sole female representative of our profession, which made for a great deal of isolation as well as the opportunity to define women’s roles in those professions.
Ada Lovelace, born 1815The isolation at work was reinforced by the social isolation of being a woman in a tech field. When someone would say “What do you do?” and we’d say “I work with computers” or “I study microwave radiation” we’d encounter a glassy eyed look and a prompt end to the conversation. This was back before the IBM PC made its appearance in Australia, when computers were regarded by many women as “toys for the boys”, when there were no sexy or cool tags such as “technobabes” or “geekgirls”.
WIT met for just a couple of years and we spent most of that time talking tech with abandon. Our one big public foray was a seminar on women in technology, which attracted hundreds of participants. I coded a sign-in application in the (wildly buggy) dBASE II. On arrival, we had each woman sit down at a computer and fill in her details. Almost without exception, this was the participant’s first experience with a personal computer. What a difference a quarter of a century makes.
The original WIT is long gone. Today there is a larger, more expansive organisation with the same name (WiT, formed in Queensland in 1997) and a number of other organisations, major programs and awards for women in technology, including Google’s Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship.
Although we may be past the days of women being isolated pioneers in their chosen technological fields, we have a long, long way to go before women’s participation and influence is where it should be. If you’re a young woman contemplating a dive into a technological career, gather some inspiration this Ada Lovelace Day by seeking out blogs tagged ALD09post or visit the Ada Lovelace Day site. You’ll meet a remarkable group of women who not only relish their geekgirl status but who are leading the way in technology for everyone.