My main introduction to computers was at graduate school starting in the mid-1960s. It was at a time when there were no Departments of Computer Science—people like me were drawn to computers because we were delighted that the university would provide us with such a wonderful and useful toy. Computers were a calling and a recreation, not a job.
The cream of the crop, of course, were the staff at the Computing Center, and our main interaction with them was at the (variously named) Help Desk, where we would take our problems (“Why isn’t my program giving me the answers it should?” “What does 0C4 mean?”). My memories of the schools I attended were that the sharpest people were both male and female, in roughly equal proportions. There was one famous female programmer at Berkeley, the author of a statistical suite, who was rumoured to have opined that men were genetically inferior as programmers.
As I ventured out into the “real” world, I worked in several shops that were both male and female, but I was also aware of some prejudice against the females. A great shame, I thought, and a great waste of potential talent.
(A certain amount of this prejudice, I guess, was that the idea of “girls don’t program” spread to young women as well—many of them found other fields of study and endeavour more interesting. Good for them, I guess, but still I wish that more girls and young women had discovered the challenge and the fun of “simply messing about in” computers….)
I am a male who started as a programmer in the early 70s. At least a third, maybe as much as a half, of my colleagues at that time were women. I suspect that women were much commoner in the field then than now for two reasons: first, there was such a demand for competent programmers that, as they say, beggars couldn’t be choosers; and second, there weren’t very many occupations that would accept and could make profitable use of bright women: there were very few female doctors and lawyers and traditional engineers. Now, I suspect, a lot of the women who would have gone into programming back then realize that they have better things to do, while most men who go into programming do so for the reason I did: it’s the only thing they can do that will get them a decent income.
willie_mctell over 3 years ago
Remember pink Prozac?
cherns Premium Member over 3 years ago
My main introduction to computers was at graduate school starting in the mid-1960s. It was at a time when there were no Departments of Computer Science—people like me were drawn to computers because we were delighted that the university would provide us with such a wonderful and useful toy. Computers were a calling and a recreation, not a job.
The cream of the crop, of course, were the staff at the Computing Center, and our main interaction with them was at the (variously named) Help Desk, where we would take our problems (“Why isn’t my program giving me the answers it should?” “What does 0C4 mean?”). My memories of the schools I attended were that the sharpest people were both male and female, in roughly equal proportions. There was one famous female programmer at Berkeley, the author of a statistical suite, who was rumoured to have opined that men were genetically inferior as programmers.
As I ventured out into the “real” world, I worked in several shops that were both male and female, but I was also aware of some prejudice against the females. A great shame, I thought, and a great waste of potential talent.
(A certain amount of this prejudice, I guess, was that the idea of “girls don’t program” spread to young women as well—many of them found other fields of study and endeavour more interesting. Good for them, I guess, but still I wish that more girls and young women had discovered the challenge and the fun of “simply messing about in” computers….)
prrdh over 3 years ago
I am a male who started as a programmer in the early 70s. At least a third, maybe as much as a half, of my colleagues at that time were women. I suspect that women were much commoner in the field then than now for two reasons: first, there was such a demand for competent programmers that, as they say, beggars couldn’t be choosers; and second, there weren’t very many occupations that would accept and could make profitable use of bright women: there were very few female doctors and lawyers and traditional engineers. Now, I suspect, a lot of the women who would have gone into programming back then realize that they have better things to do, while most men who go into programming do so for the reason I did: it’s the only thing they can do that will get them a decent income.