Women’s Equality Day: ‘Important Work … Remains to Be Done'
Women’s struggle for recognition, let alone equality, in the ICT industry is tough. Still, we persist.
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Susan Nycum is a lawyer specializing in computer security and intellectual property issues. In 1973, she co-authored “Computer Abuse,” one of the first studies to define and document computer-related crime.
In 1974, Elizabeth Feinler led a team in defining a simple text file format for internet host names. It served as the basis for the Domain Name System (DNS). Her group became the naming authority for the top-level domains of .com, .edu, .gov, .mil and .org.
In the mid-1980s, Susan Kare created the icons and many of the interface elements and typefaces for the original Apple Macintosh. In 1986, she became creative director at Steve Jobs’ NeXT.
In 1987, Anita Borg helped found Systers, an electronic mailing list for women technologists in the systems field. Today, Systems continues to offer a closed network, sage community where tech women are free to discuss issues they experience at work and share resources with one another. In 1997, Borg became founding director of the Institute for Women in Technology (IWT). It was renamed the Anita Borg Institute (ABI) in her honor in 2003. (Check out the institute’s URL — it’s anitab.org.)
Janie Tsao, a hardware engineer and entrepreneur, co-founded Linksys with her husband Victor in 1988. Originally working out of their garage, the Tsaos eventually sold the company to Cisco in 2003 for $500 million (the equivalent of approximately $742,000 million in today’s money).
An American computer science pioneer, Frances Allen also accomplished a number of firsts in winning awards. Among them: In 1989 she became the first woman IBM Fellow. In 2006 she won the Turing Award, the first woman to do so in the award’s 40-year history. She was honored for her work in high-performance computing.
1992 saw self-taught computer programmer Nancy Rhine (left) and entrepreneur Ellen Park (right) launch the first online space and the first internet company to target women. Women’s WIRE (later Women.com) provided users with email access, community forums and resources for news, advice and information.
In 1994, Dr. Telle Whitney teamed with Anita Borg (remember her?) to co-found the Grace Hopper Celebration (GHC). The pair named the gathering in honor of Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper, a trailblazer in computer programming and software development. GHC was created to offer women a chance to improve their technical skills and connect with one another. It has grown to become the world’s largest annual gathering of women technologists.
Janet Emerson Bashen started off 2006 by becoming the first African American woman to receive a patent for a web-based software invention. Her software was the foundation for LinkLine, which assists with EEO compliance, case management and claims tracking.
Janet Emerson Bashen started off 2006 by becoming the first African American woman to receive a patent for a web-based software invention. Her software was the foundation for LinkLine, which assists with EEO compliance, case management and claims tracking.
For her work in leading the team that created the onboard flight software for Apollo 11, Margaret Hamilton received the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Nov. 22, 2016. In presenting her with the medal, President Barak Obama that she represented “the generation of unsung women who helped send humankind into space.”
Regarding her position as head of the team, Hamilton commented that “They worried that the men might rebel. They didn’t.”
Hamilton, who is credited with creating the term “software engineer,” received the NASA Exceptional Space Act Award. And as if that wasn’t enough, in 2017 a minifigure of her was included in LEGO’s Women of NASA set.
For her work in leading the team that created the onboard flight software for Apollo 11, Margaret Hamilton received the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Nov. 22, 2016. In presenting her with the medal, President Barak Obama that she represented “the generation of unsung women who helped send humankind into space.”
Regarding her position as head of the team, Hamilton commented that “They worried that the men might rebel. They didn’t.”
Hamilton, who is credited with creating the term “software engineer,” received the NASA Exceptional Space Act Award. And as if that wasn’t enough, in 2017 a minifigure of her was included in LEGO’s Women of NASA set.
Today is Women’s Equality Day. Never heard of it? Not surprising. Here’s some background.
It was created by Joint Resolution on Aug. 26, 1973. Under the Resolution, “the President is authorized and requested to issue a proclamation in commemoration of that day in 1920 on which the women of American were first guaranteed the right to vote.”
It took more than 130 years for American women to be given the right to vote. And even then, it was only white women who were guaranteed the vote. Although many Black women were suffragettes, women of color — African American, Asian American, Hispanic American and Native American — had to wait another 45 years. The Voting Rights Act, passed on Aug. 6, 1965, took aim at the voter suppression that had kept them from the polls.
And today, 48 years after the creation of Women’s Day in Equality, women are still working as hard for true equal rights as their suffragette ancestors did for the vote.
In issuing this year’s proclamation, President Biden began by saying, “Today, we celebrate Women’s Equality Day, a reminder not only of the progress women have won through the years, but of the important work that remains to be done.” Amen to that.
Important Work to Be Done in ICT
The ICT industry — and by extension, its channels — has historically been the domain of white males. Women’s contributions to and accomplishments in the tech industry went unheralded and were even suppressed.
YouTube’s Erin Teague
Erin Teague is director of product management for YouTube. She had some advice for women when dealing with sexism in the industry. “Recognize and embrace your uniqueness,” she said. “I don’t think the ratios are going to change anytime soon. But, I don’t think that has to be a disadvantage. Being a Black woman, being a woman in general, on a team of all men means that you are going to have a unique voice. It’s important to embrace that.”
Nike’s Shaherose Charania
Shaherose Charania, now head of investments at Nike Valiant Labs, co-founded Women 2.0 in 2006. The company focuses on gender, diversity and inclusion in tech, and Charania is a firm believer in the power of women helping women.
“Women no longer have an ‘if I can’ mindset. Now it’s more about ‘how I can’ — be in tech, start something in tech, fund something in tech. That shift is exciting! And it happened because we created a network where we show, daily, that women are innovating.”
Project Include’s Ellen Pao
In that spirit, scroll through the gallery above to learn about just a few of the women whose accomplishments have helped blaze a trail for equality in tech. As Ellen Pao, former Reddit CEO and now CEO of nonprofit Project Include, noted, “If we do not share our stories and shine a light on inequities, things will not change.”
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