Technology is a field that is often thought of as male-dominated, and though men do seem to be the face of modern technology, women have been innovating, inventing, and leading the way to new advancements for just as long as men have. This Women’s History Month, we want to celebrate just some of these inspiring figures in the history of tech. From the first programmer to one of the inventors of the Internet—and beyond—we’d like to share a timeline of women’s accomplishments in technology. Some of these names are probably familiar to you, but we also hope you learn a little something about our industry.
A Short History of Women’s Contributions in Tech
1842
Ada Lovelace published the first algorithm, to be run by Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine, making her the first computer programmer—before we were able to actually invent computers, even.
1921
Edith Clarke was an electrical engineer at GE. She invented the Clarke calculator, which could solve line equations with hyperbolic functions ten time faster than any other process.
1942
The women at the Moore School of Engineering set up the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC) to calculate bomb trajectories in WWII.
1949
Evelyn Boyd Granville became the second African American woman to receive a Ph.D. in mathematics from Yale University. She used her considerable talents to help with the Apollo space program, including calculating celestial mechanics and trajectories.
1950s
Grace Hopper invented FLOW-MATIC, the first data processing language to resemble actual English and a predecessor of the influential programing language COBOL.
1960s
Margaret Hamilton is credited with coming up with the term “software engineering.” She led a team that developed the in-flight software for the Apollo missions and Skylab.
1961
Katherine Johnson was instrumental to calculating the launch window for Alan Shepard’s first space flight. Later, the astronaut John Glenn refused to use the numbers calculated for his orbit by electronic computers unless they were verified by Johnson.
1965
Sister Mary Kenneth Keller became the first American woman to receive a Ph.D. in Computer Science. She went on to advocate for the use of computers in education and to encourage women to get involved in computer science.
1984
Radia Perlman invented the spanning tree protocol (STP), one of the foundations of the Internet as we know it.
1993
Shafi Goldwasser received the Gödel Prize in Mathematics for co-inventing probabilistic encryption, the basis for modern data encryption security.
1999
Marissa Mayer was hired as the first female engineer at Google. She became part of the 3-person team who created AdWords (now GoogleAds), Google’s primary revenue generator.
2005
Ruchi Sanghvi became the first female engineer at Facebook. She was instrumental in creating the platform’s News Feed, rolled out in 2006.
2012
Ginni Rometty became the first woman to head IBM, serving as president, chairperson, and CEO.
2018
Gladys West was inducted into the Air Force Space and Missile Pioneers Hall of Fame for her work in developing GPS technology.
The Future
These women and their innovations still have an impact on our world today, and this is only a small handful of the incredible minds that shaped technology. We can only begin to imagine what the future holds for today’s women in tech!
