Women who coded before tech was popular

What Would Happen If The AI Industry Overlooks Women's Contributions? "A recent New York Times article released a list of people 'behind the dawn of the modern artificial intelligence movement' – and not a single woman was named. It came less than a week after news of a fake auto-generated woman being listed as a speaker on the agenda for a software conference. Unfortunately, the omission of women from the history of STEM isn’t a new phenomenon. Women have been missing from these narratives for centuries. In the wake of recent AI developments, we now have a choice: are we going to leave women out of these conversations as well – even as they continue to make massive contributions to the AI industry? Doing so risks leading us into the same fallacy that established computing itself as a 'man’s world'. The reality, of course, is quite different. A More Accurate History: Prior to computers as we know them, 'computer' was the title given to people who performed complex mathematical calculations. These people were commonly women. English mathematician Ada Lovelace (1815–1852) is often referred to as the first computer programmer. She was the first person to realize computers could do much more than just math calculations. Her work on the analytical engine – a proposed automatic and fully programmable mechanical computer – dates back to the mid-1800s. By the 1870s, a group of about 80 women worked as computers at the Harvard Observatory. They catalogued and analyzed copious amounts of astronomic data for astronomer Edward Charles Pickering (who exploited the fact they’d work for less money than men, or even as volunteers). By the late 19th century, increased access to education meant there was an entire generation of women trained in maths. These woman computers were cheaper labour than men at the time, and so employing them significantly reduced the costs of computation. During the first world war, women were hired to calculate artillery trajectories. This work continued into the Second World War, when they were actively encouraged to take on wartime jobs as computers in the absence of men. Women continued to work as computers into the early days of the American space program in the 1960s, playing a pivotal role in advancing NASA’s space projects. One of these computers was Katherine Johnson, who was responsible for quality-checking the outputs of early IBM computers for an orbital mission in 1962." #WomenInSTEM #GirlsInSTEM #STEMGems #GiveGirlsRoleModels https://lnkd.in/eDkSmjdG

Programming was first introduced to me in my undergrad at an all-women's college. I loved solving logical problems, but I quickly realized I wasn't going to be the best coder in the room. That distinction belonged to my friend Shaama. She lived in the computer lab, coding with such passion that even the stern "Mother Superior" called her parents to praise her exceptional skills - a rare occurrence usually reserved for troublemakers!. Yet at home, Shama faced resistance. "Why computer science?" her family questioned her decision. All she could say was, "Why not?" What she lacked were visible role models—women who had blazed the trail before her. Throughout history, brilliant women worked in the shadows, tackling work men often avoided. 𝗔𝗱𝗮 𝗟𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝘄𝗿𝗼𝘁𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝘂𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝗹𝗴𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗺 in the 1840s, envisioning computing capabilities most couldn't grasp. During WWII, 𝗝𝗲𝗮𝗻 𝗝𝗲𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗙𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝗕𝗶𝗹𝗮𝘀 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘅 𝗺𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗰𝘂𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀—work dismissed as less important than hardware, their contributions unrecognized for decades. 𝗚𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗛𝗼𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗿, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 "𝗤𝘂𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝗦𝗼𝗳𝘁𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗲," 𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗶𝘇𝗲𝗱 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 by creating the first compiler that made programming languages universally accessible. 𝗥𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗮 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝗹𝗺𝗮𝗻 𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗸𝗲𝗿 "𝗠𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗲𝘁"—though she humbly rejects it, noting the internet wasn't invented by any single person. Her pioneering network algorithms nonetheless became crucial building blocks for how we connect online today. 𝗛𝗲𝗱𝘆 𝗟𝗮𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗿 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗹𝘆. Known as a glamorous film star, she secretly invented frequency-hopping technology to prevent Nazi jamming of torpedo signals—foundational to WiFi, Bluetooth, and GPS we use daily. The military initially dismissed her work before classifying it as too valuable to implement. 𝗘𝗺𝗺𝘆 𝗡𝗼𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 upended mathematics despite being barred from faculty positions because of her gender. Einstein called her "the most significant creative mathematical genius" of her time, yet she lectured under male colleagues' names. These women didn't merely participate in technological revolution—they drove it forward against systems designed to exclude them. Today, women like 𝗔𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗮 𝗕𝗼𝗿𝗴 and "Godmother of AI" 𝗙𝗲𝗶-𝗙𝗲𝗶 𝗟𝗶 continue shaping technology—fighting algorithmic bias and championing human-centric technology. This Women's History Month, let us reclaim this narrative. When we understand that women have always been at computing's cutting edge, we see clearly that technology advances fastest and humanity moves forward when diverse minds contribute. Tag women in tech that inspire you! #womenshistorymonth #womenintech #techpioneers #hiddenfigures

This woman made computers understand English. At 7, Grace Hopper took apart every alarm clock in her house—just to see what made them tick. By 34, she had a PhD in math from Yale and a faculty job at Vassar. But Hopper’s academic life ended after Pearl Harbor. She wanted to serve. The Navy said no. Too old. Too skinny. Too important as a professor. She didn’t care. In 1943, she finally joined the U.S. Naval Reserve through WAVES. She graduated first in her officer training class. Her first assignment: Harvard’s Bureau of Ships Computation Project. Her job? Help program one of the world’s first computers: Howard Aiken’s Mark I. It was 8 feet tall, 51 feet long, filled with 750,000 moving parts and 530 miles of wiring. She wrote the first programming manual in history: 561 pages detailing how to operate the Mark I. She also coined the term “debugging” after her team found a literal moth causing an error in the Mark II. In 1949, she joined the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation in Philadelphia as senior mathematician. The company had created the ENIAC (the first all-electronic computer) and was now building the UNIVAC I: the first commercial digital computer. Hopper became the lead programmer. In 1952, her team developed the first-ever compiler, called A-0. It translated commands into something computers could read. In 1953, Hopper proposed that computer code should be written in English. Not symbols or numbers. Just plain language that everyday business users could understand. The response from her male colleagues? “Computers don’t understand English.” She built it anyway. Her team created FLOW-MATIC—the first programming language to use English words like “IF,” “THEN,” and “GO TO.” That led directly to COBOL (Common Business-Oriented Language). In 1959, COBOL became the first standardized business coding language. By the 1970s, it was the most widely used computer language in the world. At 60, she was forced to retire.  But seven months later, they recalled her to active duty. The Navy’s computer systems were a mess—dozens of languages, no standards. So Hopper standardized Navy programming practices and rewrote how the military handled software. In 1983, President Ronald Reagan promoted her to commodore (later renamed rear admiral). “If you ask me what accomplishment I’m most proud of,” she once said, “the answer would be all the young people I’ve trained over the years. That’s more important than writing the first compiler.” Grace Hopper died in 1992 at age 85. In 1996, the Navy named a missile destroyer after her: USS Hopper. In 2016, she was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Yale renamed one of its colleges after her. And every year, over 30,000 women gather at the Grace Hopper Celebration—the world’s largest tech conference for women. 💡 Follow Justine Juillard to read 365 stories of women innovators in 2025.

Imagine being so good at math that you could calculate the path of a shell in midair before it even launched. That’s what a group of young women did during World War II, sitting at desks covered in thick stacks of paper, racing against time to calculate artillery trajectories for the war effort. But their minds weren’t only shaping war—they were shaping the future. These women, known later as the ENIAC programmers, became the first to program the world’s first general-purpose electronic computer, despite the machine arriving without a manual and weighing thirty tons. They crawled inside panels, rewired cables, flipped switches, and mapped out logic by hand because no one had ever done this before. Their names—Kay McNulty, Betty Snyder, Marlyn Wescoff, Ruth Lichterman, Betty Jean Jennings, and Fran Bilas—were rarely mentioned in the history books, but they made the impossible possible. Their work didn’t end with the war. They helped transition the ENIAC from a military machine into a groundbreaking tool for scientific research, laying the groundwork for the computers that now live in our pockets and on our desks. They showed that women could master not just the math, but the machinery itself, in an era when women weren’t even expected to have careers. Every time you swipe your phone, check your email, or track your steps, you’re moving in a world made possible by these women who taught a roomful of wires how to think, refusing to wait for permission to change the world.

Jean E. Sammet was a pioneering American computer scientist, recognized for her contributions to early programming languages and for her efforts to elevate software engineering as a discipline. After earning a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Illinois in 1949, Sammet initially taught mathematics before transitioning into the world of computing. In 1955, she joined Sperry Gyroscope to work on scientific programming for digital computers, followed by a move to Sylvania in 1959, where she supervised the development of FORMAC (FORmula MAnipulation Compiler), one of the earliest computer algebra systems. Her career reached a pivotal moment in 1961 when she joined IBM, where she played an instrumental role in language development. Sammet contributed significantly to COBOL, notably helping with its standardization. She chaired the committee that worked on COBOL's specifications for CODASYL, cementing her place in the history of business computing. One of Sammet's most enduring contributions was her 1969 book, Programming Languages: History and Fundamentals. It provided one of the first comprehensive overviews of programming language design, cataloging dozens of languages by their purposes and development. The book is still an essential reference in the field of programming language theory. Sammet's influence expanded beyond COBOL. In the 1980s, she was an active participant in the Ada programming language project, which was led by the U.S. Department of Defense to create a standardized, reliable language for embedded systems and large-scale software development. Sammet's expertise in programming languages, language standards, and software engineering made her an invaluable advisor during the Ada language's evolution. Her involvement helped guide the inclusion of key features in Ada that emphasized safety, modularity, and maintainability, which were critical for the language's intended use in high-assurance systems. A strong advocate for women in computing, Sammet was the first female president of the ACM, Association for Computing Machinery, serving from 1974 to 1976. She was also deeply involved in programming language standardization efforts through ANSI and ISO, and she was a founding member of the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board of the National Research Council.

Women’s contributions to tech are often overlooked. Case in point: We call it “software engineering” because of Margaret Hamilton. She coined the term while leading NASA’s software team for Apollo 11, arguing that software should be engineered with the same precision and discipline as hardware. And she proved it. Minutes before the Lunar Module was set to land on the moon in 1969, alarms started flashing on board. The guidance computer was overloaded. Most missions would have aborted. But Hamilton’s design was built for this. Her software was smart enough to know when to ignore non-essential tasks and prioritize critical ones: to keep the mission on track. That’s fault-tolerant computing at its finest. Her work shaped asynchronous programming, modular architecture, and error recovery. These are concepts that power AI, cloud, and distributed systems today. Another inspiring thing about Hamilton? She was a self-driven learner in a time when no formal training for “software engineering” exists. She learned by building. That’s how great engineers should grow: by experimenting, learning, and iterating. On International Women’s Day, let’s celebrate the pioneers who shaped tech, and the women pushing it forward today. Who’s a woman in tech that inspires you? Tag them here so we can give them the recognition they deserve. #SoftwareEngineering #MargaretHamilton #WomensHistoryMonth #InternationalWomensDay

National Geographic In the shadow of World War II, six women—Betty Holberton, Jean Bartik, Kay McNulty, Ruth Teitelbaum, Marlyn Meltzer, and Frances Spence—quietly made history. Chosen to program ENIAC, the world’s first general-purpose electronic computer, they entered a field with no rules, no manuals, and no coding languages. Armed only with logic, blueprints, and sheer determination, they invented the very methods of programming that would shape the digital age. When ENIAC was unveiled in 1946, the men received the credit. The women were left in the shadows, their brilliance hidden behind blinking lights. It wasn’t until decades later, when computer scientist Kathy Kleiman uncovered their story, that their contributions were finally recognized. These six women didn’t just program ENIAC—they pioneered modern computing. Their legacy lives on in every algorithm, every app, and every keystroke today.

“But men invented everything” - sound familiar?! But did you know that In the 1800s, Ada Lovelace worked alongside Charles Babbage on his design for the Analytical Engine, an early mechanical computer. But while Babbage was focused on building the machine to perform calculations, Ada saw something far more significant - it wasn’t just about crunching numbers. She understood that the machine could do much more, that it could be programmed to handle not just numbers, but any kind of information. Ada's most famous contribution was her algorithm for the Analytical Engine, which is considered the first published computer program. But what makes her ideas even more revolutionary is that she recognized the potential for computers to go beyond mere calculations. In her notes, she suggested that machines could be used to manipulate symbols and perform complex tasks - an idea that directly inspired the development of modern computers. This was the birth of the concept of "general-purpose computing" - the idea that a machine could be programmed to do a variety of tasks, from mathematics to, well, everything else we use computers for today. It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that men invented everything when it comes to technology. After all, the spotlight tends to shine on names like Bill Gates or Steve Jobs. But the truth is, women like Ada Lovelace were pivotal in shaping the world of technology long before computers became a part of everyday life. Her legacy is a great reminder that women have always been there, shaping our world in ways both big and small. So no, men didn’t invent everything 😜🤷♀️ #WomenHistoryMonth

Programming used to be women’s work 🙋🏻♀️. Back in the 1940s, before Grace Hopper developed the first compiler, there was only machine code, not programming languages. Programming a computer was hard work that men thought below them. You had to be persistent, very accurate and really good at math. Women, especially black female computers, were the ones behind NASA’s successful first and subsequent U.S. crewed spaceflights. Katherine Johnson and her colleagues calculated launch windows and emergency return paths for, e.g., John Glenn’s mission by hand. Margaret Hamilton played a critical role in the Moon Landings as director of the Software Engineering Division of the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory, which developed the flight software for the Apollo missions. Her rigorous approach to software development and testing ensured the success of numerous space missions, including the historic Apollo 11 lunar landing. In recognition of her significant contributions, Hamilton was immortalized as a LEGO figure in 2017 and featured in the LEGO Ideas set "Women of NASA " alongside scientists Nancy Grace Roman, Sally Ride and Mae Jemison. Women are excellent software developers, even if young women are still being told otherwise! https://lnkd.in/d3AMPQMk #womeninstem #womenintech #womenengineers #softwaredevelopement #nasa