Tech Industry Has Written Women Out Of History

Susie and her computer friend Sadie appeared in 1960s adverts to promote a now defunct UK computer company, accompanied by a young, attractive, nameless woman. 

Feminised adverts like these were a common ploy in Britain at the time, when male managers, uninitiated in the complexities of this new technology, viewed the machines as intimidating and opaque. “Computers were expensive and using women to advertise them gave the appearance to managers that jobs involving computers are easy and can be done with a cheap labour force,” explains technology historian Marie Hicks. 

They might have been on a typist’s salary, but women like the one who appears alongside Susie and Sadie were not typists, they were skilled computer programmers, minus the prestige or pay the modern equivalent might command. As Hicks’ book Programmed Inequality illustrates, women were the largest trained technical workforce of the computing industry during the second world war and through to the mid-sixties.

They operated the huge room-sized electro-mechanical computers that cracked codes, worked out military logistics and made ballistic calculations during the second world war. 

Later they went on to work for civil service departments, operating the computers needed for government to gather data and run properly. “It was viewed as unskilled, highly feminised work,” explains Hicks. “Women were seen as an easy, tractable labour force for jobs that were critical and yet simultaneously devalued.”

Managers perceived women to be ideal for the computing industry because they didn’t think they needed to be offered any sort of career ladder, explains Hicks. “Instead the expectation was that a woman’s career would be kept short because of marriage and children, which meant a workforce that didn’t get frustrated or demand promotions and higher wages.”
But by the 1970s, there was a change in mindset and women were no longer welcome in the workplace: the government and industry had grown wise to just how powerful computers were and wanted to integrate their use at a management level. “But they weren’t going to put women workers, seen as low level drones, in charge of computers,” explains Hicks. Women were systematically phased out and replaced by men who were paid more and had better job titles.

Discrimination Still Remains 
“Today, companies still perceive it as lucrative to treat women differently than men, to pay them less,” says Hicks. Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg recently spoke out against the gender pay gap, prevalent in the tech space where giants like Google have been accused of systematically underpaying women. 
In May the company argued that it would be too much of a financial hassle to compile and hand over the salary records requested by the US Department of Labor. In August the Silicon Valley company was left facing legal action over the leak of a male software engineer’s 10-page manifesto criticising diversity initiatives and arguing that men occupy more leadership roles than women in tech due to “biological differences”.
“Even though companies like Google obviously weren’t around in that earlier period, they’re still benefiting from the same cultures that sidelined women,” says the author.

If women had continued to be a major force in computing, instead of being sidelined, the way the tech industry looks today would have been very different, she argues. “If women had been a more important part of the high tech industry all along, would so many platforms and apps have the same problems with rampant sexism and misogyny both in their workplaces and their products? Most likely not.”

The British computing industry lost its edge when it removed women – and ultimately, the move destroyed it, believes Hicks. “There were persistent labour shortages once women were thrown away – a lot of the young men who got trained to do these jobs soon decided to go and do something else because it was still seen as feminised work and there really wasn’t a career ladder at that point.” 

The Effect Of Sidelining Women 
If women had remained a part of the workforce, the scope and quality of computing products we have today, particularly software, would undoubtedly be better, says Hicks. She uses Dame Stephanie Shirley as an example of the sort of talent effectively written off by the mainstream industry at the time. In the face of repeated workplace discrimination, the 29-year-old went it alone in the 1960s and built up a thriving software business for female computer programmers.
In an interview with the Guardian earlier this year, Shirley said she knew her work at the Post Office’s prestigious Dollis Hill research station was good enough to get her promoted, but the promised promotion never materialised. 
“When I began to make it clear that I was pursuing a vigorous professional career, then it became a more entrenched position to keep me out,” she recalls. When the young computer programmer got married, it was expected that she would stop work immediately.
“Women continue to be weighed down with this sort of heteronormative cultural baggage,” says Hicks. “I think it’s clear that just relying on companies to do the right thing is not going to work and I think unions are going to have to become a major force again.”

It’s vital that the invisible female workforce that upheld the computing industry for more than 40 years isn’t forgotten. “It’s easy to write history just looking at the people who are really good self-promoters, it isn’t as sexy or exciting to focus on a broad swath of faceless workers, but historical change doesn’t come from one person doing one thing.” 

Programmed Inequality: How Britain Discarded Women Technologists and Lost Its Edge In Computing was published by MIT Press in January 2017

Guardian:  

You Might Also Read:

Room At The Top For Women In Tech:

Very Few UK Girls Took Computing A-level:

 

« Cybersecurity Rules For Autonomous Vehicles
How Worried Should We Be About a Nuclear War With North Korea? »

Infosecurity Europe
CyberSecurity Jobsite
Perimeter 81

Directory of Suppliers

NordLayer

NordLayer

NordLayer is an adaptive network access security solution for modern businesses — from the world’s most trusted cybersecurity brand, Nord Security. 

TÜV SÜD Academy UK

TÜV SÜD Academy UK

TÜV SÜD offers expert-led cybersecurity training to help organisations safeguard their operations and data.

LockLizard

LockLizard

Locklizard provides PDF DRM software that protects PDF documents from unauthorized access and misuse. Share and sell documents securely - prevent document leakage, sharing and piracy.

Jooble

Jooble

Jooble is a job search aggregator operating in 71 countries worldwide. We simplify the job search process by displaying active job ads from major job boards and career sites across the internet.

The PC Support Group

The PC Support Group

A partnership with The PC Support Group delivers improved productivity, reduced costs and protects your business through exceptional IT, telecoms and cybersecurity services.

ThreatConnect

ThreatConnect

ThreatConnect is an enterprise threat intelligence platform by Cyber Squared bridging incident response, defense, and threat analysis for InfoSec & DFIR teams.

DomainTools

DomainTools

DomainTools is the global leader for internet intelligence and the first place security practitioners go when they need to know.

Kratikal

Kratikal

Kratikal provides a complete suite of manual and automated security testing services.

InferSight

InferSight

InferSight can help you design an architecture that takes into account security, performance, availability, functionality, resiliency and future capacity to avoid technological lock in and limitations

Force Majeure

Force Majeure

Force Majeure specializes in cybersecurity, incident response, and digital forensics, with experience spanning more than a decade.

Client Solution Architects (CSA)

Client Solution Architects (CSA)

Client Solution Architects (CSA) is a leading digital transformation consulting firm focused on the U.S. Defense Department and all U.S. Federal enterprise information technology service areas.

NetWitness

NetWitness

NetWitness empowers security teams to rapidly detect today’s targeted and sophisticated attacks with unparalleled visibility.

Recon InfoSec

Recon InfoSec

The Recon InfoSec team includes analysts, architects, engineers, intrusion specialists, penetration testers, and operations experts.

Hexens

Hexens

Hexens introduces a whole new approach to cybersecurity solutions. Indisputable skills and a unique super-focused perspective on every single case are the values we create.

SoftForum

SoftForum

SoftForum is a company specializing in next-generation information security solutions in the Quantum-Resistant-Cryptography (PQC) field.

Data Computer Services

Data Computer Services

Data Computer Services provides professional tailored IT Support and IT Services for businesses throughout Edinburgh and the Lothians.

Wired Assurance

Wired Assurance

Wired Assurance is a testing and assurance company, specialized in software applications and blockchain smart contracts.

Seal Security

Seal Security

Seal Security revolutionizes software supply chain security operations, empowering organizations to automate and scale their open source vulnerability remediation and patch management.

The PC Support Group

The PC Support Group

A partnership with The PC Support Group delivers improved productivity, reduced costs and protects your business through exceptional IT, telecoms and cybersecurity services.

Applied Insight

Applied Insight

Applied Insight work closely with government agencies and industry to overcome technical and cultural hurdles to innovation, empowering them with the latest cloud, data and cyber capabilities.

Baselime

Baselime

Baselime, the cloud-native observability platform. Resolve issues in your cloud application before they become problems.