When I was in high school in Canada in the early/mid 1970s, there were a couple of computers for students. These were very basic with punch cards. It was always the same group of boys crowded around them and girls couldn’t get near. The math teacher involved did not encourage us to learn how to code the cards or how to switch the machines on. We didn’t even understand what we could use them for.
A few years after leaving high school, I enrolled on a night school computing class which was for women only. What a treat. No men to talk down to us and we all learned how computers worked, some applications - not many in those days and some basic coding.
Thanks very much for your wonderful newsletters. I always feel slightly grumpy after reading because it dawns on me how far we still have to go.
I was jumping all over this post with excitement this morning as I thought of a poetry collection by Jessy Randall, published by MIT press called "Mathematics for Ladies" The title refers to how the early Soviet Union described more theoretical mathematics (set theory among the disciplines) in the 1920s as opposed to applied mathematics, which was considered to be more "rigorous" and more attuned to socialist values. Turning this particular argument upside down--but essentially the same wolf, different clothing. That which is valued is done by men, that which is not is done by women.
I carry signed copies of the book to meetings I go to with women scientists.
The volume of poetry is a collection of really carefully researched poems about what women in science and mathematics have achieved despite the cultures they have lived in/through. And she has a new collection "The Path of Most Resistance: Poems on Women in Science" that has just come out. They can be found here: https://mitpress.mit.edu/author/jessy-randall-13904/
Full disclosure: Jessy is a friend of mine that I met at a writing retreat. She is a serious person, a rare books librarian in the USA, regularly published in serious science journals, and an absolutely hysterical, irreverent human being.
Caroline, I have been wanting to connect you and Jessy for some time given all the work that you in this area. If you are happy to PM me, I will happily send you a connection email.
Also, just to let you know that I referenced you in a podcast I did last month on women and drug development with the Access to Medicines Foundation Health Equity Podcast: https://accesstomedicinefoundation.org/the-health-equity-podcast in case you are keeping track of references to your work.
I hope you have recovered well from your operation and wishing you all the best.
Thanks for another great newsletter. The Genius Myth is definitely on my TBR as I loved Difficult Women. I could also recommend 12 bytes by Jeanette Winterson when it comes to computer science and it's development. I have always worked for myself in computer science, but I've definitely had instances where I've been patronised in emails about something I was more all over than the person I was talking to, and I do wonder if it would have been different if I'd signed off to 'Matt' instead of 'Mandy' it would be different. It is so important to get more women in the tech world solving problems that affect women (just as a small example - it probably doesn't occur to men how much pockets are a thing). My friend ran an outreach programme to get more working class kids on a tech courses, but in the end they found that they only had boys applying. When he questioned the leaders of the course it turned out that they had only advertised in the computer science department, rather than going out to where the girls were. When I was a kid, I didn't know computer science was an option. I hope it is better now
The Code Girls about the WWII code-workers is a great examination along similar lines (code calculation evolved into computer coding). It was initially thought of by the US Army as rote but necessary work that was needed to give the girls something to o do so they wouldn't sleep around.
Hidden Figures is an excellent film based on fact about the female computers involved in John Glenn’s spaceflight. There are lots of women who study computer science but they go into industry rather than research because they know that they need to earn in order to support a (later) family…
When I was in high school in Canada in the early/mid 1970s, there were a couple of computers for students. These were very basic with punch cards. It was always the same group of boys crowded around them and girls couldn’t get near. The math teacher involved did not encourage us to learn how to code the cards or how to switch the machines on. We didn’t even understand what we could use them for.
A few years after leaving high school, I enrolled on a night school computing class which was for women only. What a treat. No men to talk down to us and we all learned how computers worked, some applications - not many in those days and some basic coding.
Thanks very much for your wonderful newsletters. I always feel slightly grumpy after reading because it dawns on me how far we still have to go.
Agreed, combination of laughing and grumpy after reading :) :(
I was jumping all over this post with excitement this morning as I thought of a poetry collection by Jessy Randall, published by MIT press called "Mathematics for Ladies" The title refers to how the early Soviet Union described more theoretical mathematics (set theory among the disciplines) in the 1920s as opposed to applied mathematics, which was considered to be more "rigorous" and more attuned to socialist values. Turning this particular argument upside down--but essentially the same wolf, different clothing. That which is valued is done by men, that which is not is done by women.
I carry signed copies of the book to meetings I go to with women scientists.
The volume of poetry is a collection of really carefully researched poems about what women in science and mathematics have achieved despite the cultures they have lived in/through. And she has a new collection "The Path of Most Resistance: Poems on Women in Science" that has just come out. They can be found here: https://mitpress.mit.edu/author/jessy-randall-13904/
Full disclosure: Jessy is a friend of mine that I met at a writing retreat. She is a serious person, a rare books librarian in the USA, regularly published in serious science journals, and an absolutely hysterical, irreverent human being.
Caroline, I have been wanting to connect you and Jessy for some time given all the work that you in this area. If you are happy to PM me, I will happily send you a connection email.
Also, just to let you know that I referenced you in a podcast I did last month on women and drug development with the Access to Medicines Foundation Health Equity Podcast: https://accesstomedicinefoundation.org/the-health-equity-podcast in case you are keeping track of references to your work.
I hope you have recovered well from your operation and wishing you all the best.
Thanks for another great newsletter. The Genius Myth is definitely on my TBR as I loved Difficult Women. I could also recommend 12 bytes by Jeanette Winterson when it comes to computer science and it's development. I have always worked for myself in computer science, but I've definitely had instances where I've been patronised in emails about something I was more all over than the person I was talking to, and I do wonder if it would have been different if I'd signed off to 'Matt' instead of 'Mandy' it would be different. It is so important to get more women in the tech world solving problems that affect women (just as a small example - it probably doesn't occur to men how much pockets are a thing). My friend ran an outreach programme to get more working class kids on a tech courses, but in the end they found that they only had boys applying. When he questioned the leaders of the course it turned out that they had only advertised in the computer science department, rather than going out to where the girls were. When I was a kid, I didn't know computer science was an option. I hope it is better now
urgh that is such a classic issue. "no girls came, it's a mystery! also we never told them about it. but still, a mystery!"
Exactly 🙄
The Code Girls about the WWII code-workers is a great examination along similar lines (code calculation evolved into computer coding). It was initially thought of by the US Army as rote but necessary work that was needed to give the girls something to o do so they wouldn't sleep around.
Thanks for taking the time to point all this out.
Hidden Figures is an excellent film based on fact about the female computers involved in John Glenn’s spaceflight. There are lots of women who study computer science but they go into industry rather than research because they know that they need to earn in order to support a (later) family…