Women Who Have Made Valuable Contributions to Our Lives

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On this date to honor the achievements made by women in their fight for equality, it is also a day to protest the discrimination that persists in society, an auspicious day to honor women who have overcome prejudices and gender stereotypes.

The United Nations, in 1977, proclaimed March 8 as the DAY OF THE UNITED NATIONS FOR THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN and since then every year it is commemorated under a motto. This 2023 marks World Women's Day under the slogan "For an inclusive digital world: Innovation and technology for gender equality" and in this context, I want to develop today's article paying tribute and recognition to some women who have long throughout history have had a strong impact on these areas.

DID YOU KNOW

  …According to UNESCO, only 30% of women choose careers within technology, Mathematics, Science, and Engineering and that, of that percentage, only 3% opt for Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Despite these low rates, its influence is notorious, and its developments are very important in this field.

From the 19th century, there is a record of women who have overcome prejudices and gender stereotypes, to embark on the adventure and passion of research, development, and creation, an extremely relevant characteristic of feminine energy. Some of these women are:

1. “The Analytical Machine”, was the name given to the British Augusta do Condesa de Lovelace (1815-1852), known as Ada Lovelace, and considered the first computer programmer. She was a computer scientist, a mathematician, and a writer. She is the mother of computer programming (1843). She designed a mechanical analytical engine, capable of calculating algebraic functions.

2. Mary Kenneth Keller (1914-1985). First female Ph.D. in computer science in the United States. She was a Catholic nun; she is considered one of the mothers of technology and is a pioneer in computing.

3. Margaret Hamilton (1936) developed the navigation software for the Apollo Space Program.

4. Evelyn Berezin (1925-2018). American computer engineer. She is also known as the mother of word processors; she developed the first airline ticket reservation system.

5. Erna Schneider Hoover (1926- ) Inventor, engineer, theoretical and mathematical computer science, development of the digitization system for telephone switching.

6. Edith Clarke (1883-1959). In 1921 she patented a graphing calculator that solved electrical transmission problems. America's first female Electronic Engineer, she wrote the manual Circuit Analysis of A-C Power Systems. She specialized in the analysis of electric power systems.

7. Hedwig Eva María Kiesler, (1914 – 2000), Viennese, known as Hedi Lamarr. She created the system that inspired WiFi, in 1940, through a wireless system for missiles, the first version of the wide spectrum. In addition to being an inventor, she was a Hollywood actress.

8. Joan Elisabeth Lowther Murray (1917-1996), British cryptanalyst and numismatist. She deciphered the enigma code that decrypted the secret communications of Nazi Germany and allowed the Allied victory in World War II. She worked at Bletchley Park, alongside the mathematician Alan Turing.

9. Angela Ruiz Robles (1895-1975). Teacher, inventor, writer, creator of the electronic book "ebook" and developer of the mechanical encyclopedia.

10. Rósa Politzer, (1905 –1977), a mathematician who contributed to the development of the Theory of Recursive Special Functions fundamental to computing, was known by the name of Rózsa Péter. She was the first woman to join the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. She is a writer, columnist, and teacher.

11. Grace Murray Hopper (1906 –1992) Rear Admiral of the United States Army, computer scientist. She was a pioneer in the world of computing, she developed the compiler for a programming language, which led to the development of COBOL, a high-level programming language that is still used today.

12.Jean E. Sammet (1928-2017). An American mathematician and computer scientist and university professor, she developed the FORMAC programming language in 1962, which turned out to be the first for symbolic manipulation. She oversaw software development at the Mobidic project.

13. Karen Spärck Jones (1935-2007) British specialist in computational linguistics. Research Scientist and pioneer in information retrieval.

14. Shirley Ann Jackson (1946). American, Ph.D. in nuclear physics. First African American woman to earn a Ph.D. from MIT. A second African American woman from the United States earned a Ph.D. in physics. She developed fax, tone dialing, and fiber optics.

15. Frances Elizabeth, called "Fran" Allen (1932). North American Computing, Nobel Prize in Computing, Specialized in the performance of computer programs. She worked on compilers, code optimization, and parallel computing. She created programming languages and security codes for the American National Security Agency.

16. Radio Joy Perlman (1951). American network engineer, known as the mother of the Internet. is a software creator, and security expert. Her greatest contribution to the world of technology was the creation of the STP protocol (Spanning Tree Protocol).

17. Carol Shaw (1955). American engineers and computer scientists are known for being the first female video game designer.

18. Top Secret Rosies was a group of 6 women who made great contributions to programming and technology during the 20th century, they were hired by the United States Army in 1942,

to carry out the programming of ENIAC, the first electronic digital computer used for the calculation of ballistic and general-purpose trajectories.

The Top Secret Rosies was made up of Betty Snyder Holberton (1917-2001) also recognized for her contributions to the COBOL language, Jean Jennings Bartik (1924-1911) mathematician and editor for Auerbach Publications, a pioneer publisher in the field of linked materials to the development of high information technology. Kathleen McNulty Mauchly Antonelli (1921-2006) a mathematician, was inducted into the International Hall of Fame for Women in Technology in 1997 along with the other original ENIAC programmers. Marlyn Wescoff Meltzer (1922-2008), mathematician and computer engineer, volunteered at Shir Ami and Sunday school story hour in Ewing, New Jersey; Ruth Lichterman Teitelbaum (1924-1986), also a mathematician like her other project partners, and Frances Bilas Spence (1922-2012), a mathematician with a physics orientation.

The great contribution of these women was that the allied army, thanks to their work, won the war ahead of schedule and thus saved lives.

This team was the inspiration for the 2013 award-winning documentary “The Comuters” created by Kate McMahon and John Palfreman, the first in a three-part series, “The Coders” and “The Future-Maker” followed.

In short, thanks to the courage, conviction, and dreams of these brave women, today the world has within reach technological advances, without which it is unthinkable to live or work. And you, did you know their stories?