We should all know Ada and Adele...

While technology is clearly not dominated by women; a few key women who ignored social convention stand out. Ada Lovelace, daughter of the poet Lord Byron, aided Charles Babbage in his invention of what we widely regard as the first computer: the Analytic Engine. Ironically, she looked to her domestic skill with the jacquard loom and created a way to program the Engine using cards. In acknowledgement of Lovelace's contribution to computer science,  the U.S. Military named a programming language in her honor (Connelly, 1999). A woman, Adele Goldstine, programmed and wrote the user manual for the first modern era computer ENIAC. A few women took chances and contributed their talents to the advancement of technology, but a recent poll taken by incoming UCLA students highlight the continued trend toward shying away from computers; a scant 2% of surveyed women indicated they planned to pursue programming as a career (Mayfield, 2001).

Though beyond the scope of this report, an historical survey of media in the form of advertising, television, and film would yield a very different picture than the brilliant Ada Lovelace or the intrepid Adele Goldstine. The historical images on the first page offer a glimpse into the cultural beliefs we harbor; and highlight why perhaps more women were actively involved in technology. I surmise that the ENIAC image taken in the 40's reflects an era when women did actually take on more "men's work" due to World War II; later in the 70's, women either model for new technology or attend to a machine in a very abstract way. One of my favorite ephemeral advertising videos produced by the Jam Handy Organization in 1940 humorously parallels recent research into the cultural norms that interestingly show that almost seventy year later not much has changed; most girls and women believe that technology remains primarily a man's domain.

Cultural Context

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