{"id":3416,"date":"2019-08-21T07:41:09","date_gmt":"2019-08-21T06:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.alvantia.com\/?p=3416"},"modified":"2019-08-21T07:53:11","modified_gmt":"2019-08-21T06:53:11","slug":"top-secret-rosies-six-cool-programmers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alvantia.com\/en\/top-secret-rosies-six-cool-programmers\/","title":{"rendered":"Top Secret Rosies: six cool programmers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As we\nknow, women currently have very little presence in technology companies.\nHowever, recent studies<\/strong><\/a> show that companies\nwould yield a much greater profit if they were to achieve equality: for\nexample, if the UK were to increase the number of women to 30%, its economy\nwould grow by 11 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

One of\nthe main problems that lead to this situation lies in education. Despite, in\ngeneral terms and according to the latest report on Data and figures of the Spanish\nuniversity system<\/strong><\/a>, there is a higher percentage of women enrolled at\nSpanish universities (54.8%), although there are few on engineering courses (25%).\nThe figure is even lower in IT (12%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hence\nthe importance of motivating new generations from a young age. According to Ann\nCairns, Vice Chairman of Mastercard, at the Women at the top<\/em>\nconference held last year in London, \u201cwe must start teaching 12-year-old girls\nthat technology is cool\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At\nAlvantia, we believe that women play an essential role in the technology sector\nand must have a greater presence. But also in History. We\u2019ve all heard of Alan\nTuring, considered the father of modern computer science, who helped decipher\nthe German Enigma code during World War II. But little has been said about a\ngroup of female programmers who also actively collaborated in changing the\ncourse of the conflict. They are the \u201cTop Secret Rosies<\/strong>\u201d, six\nwomen recruited in 1942 by the US government during World War II, who worked on\nprogramming the ENIAC<\/strong> <\/strong><\/a>(Electronic Numerical\nIntegrator And Computer).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\npioneers of programming<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

ENIAC,\nconsidered by many the first general-purpose computer, was built at the\nUniversity of Pennsylvania by <\/strong>John Presper Eckert<\/strong><\/a> and John William Mauchly<\/strong><\/a>, and\nwas used to calculate missile trajectories during the war. It occupied 167 m\u00b2,\nweighed 27 tonnes and measured 2.5 metres high by 24 metres long. Mathematics\nspecialists Betty Holberton, Jean Bartik, Frances Spence, Ruth Teitelbaum,\nMarlyn Meltzer and Kathleen Antonelli were in charge of programming it. They\ndeveloped the basics of computer programming, creating the first routine\nlibrary and the first software applications. They connected cables to the\ncomputer\u2019s six thousand terminals, gradually improving its use and achieving\nprogramming combinations that were essential for achieving more calculations,\nand faster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Betty Snyder Holberton (left) and Betty Jean Jennings Bartik (right).<\/em>
Photo: U.S. Army Photo. Wikimedia Commons <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

As the\nproject was classified as a military secret, the first programming steps were\ncarried out away from the computer, to which they had no access and for which\nthey had to design programming diagrams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was\nperhaps Betty Snyder Holberton<\/strong> (1917-2001) who\nsubsequently made the greatest contribution to the world of computing (despite\nbeing a journalist and having taught herself maths and physics): she took part\nin UNIVAC I, the first computer controlled by instructions entered with a\nkeyboard. She also helped develop the C-10, the prototype for modern\nprogramming languages and, together with Grace Hopper, took part in\ndeveloping the first COBOL<\/a> and FORTRAN<\/a> standards. She received\nthe Ada Lovelace prize in 1997.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Betty\nJean Jennings Bartik<\/strong> (1924-2011) was on the team that transformed\nthe ENIAC into a computer with stored programs. After working with BINAC and\nUNIVAC I, she became an editor for Auerbach Publications, a pioneer in\ninformation technologies. She has a dedicated museum at Northwest\nMissouri State University<\/a>. And in 2008 she received the\nComputer History Museum prize.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ruth\nLichterman Teitelbaum<\/strong> (1924-1986), meanwhile, moved to Aberdeen with\nthe ENIAC in 1947, where she taught the next generation of programmers how to\nuse it. Her colleague Kathleen McNulty Mauchly Antonelli<\/strong> (1921-2006)\nalso moved to the Aberdeen military base and in 1948 married John W. Mauchly,\none of the engineers who created the ENIAC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frances\nBilas Spence<\/strong> (1922-2012) married a Navy electronic engineer who also\nworked on the ENIAC in 1947 and left her job to take care of her family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, Marlyn\nWescoff Meltzer<\/strong> (1922-2008) gave up her job before the ENIAC was\ntransferred to Aberdeen to get married.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nwork of these women undoubtedly contributed greatly to bringing an end to a\nmilitary conflict of terrible dimensions. In recognition of their great work,\nin 1997 they were included in the Women in Technology International Hall of\nFame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\nwant to find out more about this interesting group of female programmers, we\nrecommend the documentary film \u201cTop Secret Rosies.<\/strong><\/a> The Female\n\u201cComputers\u201d of World War II<\/strong><\/a>\u201d, filmed in 2010 and\ndirected by Leann Erickson.<\/p>\n

<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As we know, women currently have very little presence in technology companies. However, recent studies show that companies would yield a much greater profit if they were to achieve equality: for example, if the UK were to increase the number of women to 30%, its economy would grow by 11 billion.<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":3404,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[215,186,261,187,206],"tags":[305,303,300],"class_list":["post-3416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alvantia-en","category-alvantia-2","category-news","category-technology","category-tecnologia-en","tag-eniac","tag-programmers","tag-top-secret-rosies","not-single"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alvantia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alvantia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alvantia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alvantia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alvantia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3416"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.alvantia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3416\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3424,"href":"https:\/\/www.alvantia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3416\/revisions\/3424"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alvantia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alvantia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alvantia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alvantia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}