When women stopped coding (Classic)

Planet Money

NPR

Business, News

4.6 • 29.8K Ratings

🗓️ 7 December 2022

⏱️ 17 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A lot of computing pioneers were women. For decades, the number of women in computer science was growing. But in 1984, something changed.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Planet Money from NPR.
0:04.0	Hey there, Erica Baris here.
0:09.0	Today we're rerunning one of our favorite episodes from our archives. Enjoy!
0:14.0	Computer Science today is a male-dominated field.
0:17.0	We know this. It's in the statistics.
0:19.0	And just think of all the names you know.
0:21.0	Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, all dudes.
0:25.0	But, Caitlin, I gotta tell you, I've been meeting these women.
0:28.0	Women whose names we should know too.
0:30.0	Bad-ass computing pioneers.
0:33.0	Women who are now in their 70s and 80s,
0:36.0	but who programmed some of the first digital computers.
0:38.0	Back in the days, when software was written in machine language, in binary.
0:43.0	The numbers that you set up to test had to be coded in binary.
0:48.0	So, can you still convert like 13 into binary in your head?
0:52.0	No, I can't. I'm really easily...
0:54.0	All right. What does 13 in binary sound like?
0:57.0	1101.
0:59.0	That's great. All right. 26 in binary.
1:04.0	I didn't think this was a test.
1:08.0	That's Elaine Kimowitz.
1:10.0	She was a college student who got a job programming at Raytheon.
	...

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