Technology Blog Archive
Posted February 21, 2007 at 12:10 PM in Computing, Geekout, People I Admire, Technology, Women! | Comments Off
Woo hoo! From the latest ACM Press Release (emphasis mine):
ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, has named Frances E. Allen the recipient of the 2006 A.M. Turing Award for contributions that fundamentally improved the performance of computer programs in solving problems, and accelerated the use of high performance computing. This award marks the first time that a woman has received this honor. The Turing Award, first presented in 1966, and named for British mathematician Alan M. Turing, is widely considered the “Nobel Prize in Computing.” It carries a $100,000 prize, with financial support provided by Intel Corporation.
Congratulations, Fran! (See my pictures of Fran at GHC 2004.)
Over at USA Today, Kevin Maney has a great article on Fran. He tells her story and comments on the lack of women in technology fields at the same time.
Maney writes, “Allen, now retired from IBM Research, started in computing in 1957 — a time when tech companies, believe it or not, seemed like wide-open and exciting places for women to build careers.” This echoes the sentiments expressed to me by Milly Koss last year, when she told me the story of how she was hired by Eckert-Mauchley just after getting engaged (typically a death knoll for a woman trying to start a career in the 50′s).
I love how Maney confronts the hype around girls and women not being suited for math and science — head on. “First of all, it’s ridiculous to suggest that girls are less predisposed to math and science. Allen is not a freak of nature. Instead, something happened to the technology profession — and to public attitudes about it — to scare off girls.” I couldn’t agree more.
I remember first learning about Fran Allen, back when I was an undergrad. (Deepak encouraged us to learn about the history of computer science and, in particular, about the role of women in its history.) Ever since, she’s been a role model to me, and I know she’s been a role model and mentor to many other women as well. I’m so excited for her to receive this award, not only because it acknowledges her valuable contributions and dedication to the field, but also because it will make her story better known to scores of people (especially young women) considering a career in computing.
Posted January 29, 2007 at 9:10 AM in Technology, Women!, Work | Comments Off
Via eWeek, we learn that the gender wage gap in tech is narrowing (from 10.9% to 9.7%) and that, in certain areas, women are earning more than their male counterparts!
Finally, some good news about women in tech. It seems that recent articles on women in tech have mainly focused on the number of women leaving careers in technology. Of course, I wonder when those articles are penned by men — they frequently cite what I consider to be bogus reasons for women leaving (things like “male counterparts too techy” and “not willing to work long hours”). Is it possible that these authors stir up this hype in an effort to scare away women? I think so.. since I’ve never heard of any woman leaving a job solely because of the hours being too long or because they weren’t geeky enough to get along. Honestly, I doubt that most men could fully understand the reasons why a woman would choose to leave a job… but that’s a whole other discussion…
Anyway, knowing that one has a better chance of being paid equally, I hope that more women will opt in to technology education and careers. More women are certainly needed, and most places I’ve worked, I know they’d be most welcome!
Posted December 29, 2006 at 1:48 AM in Books, GHC, People I Admire, Technology, Women! | Comments (1)
I’m only a third of the way through She’s Such a Geek but I’m loving and finding something to appreciate in every story. This book is a required read for any woman in (or interested in) science and technology… as well as for any educator or mentor that works with women. Hell, it should just be required for everyone, period.
One thing that has me almost giddy as I’m reading are the stories of how these women got interested in math, science, and technology. So far only one has mentioned a man as their primary mentor; the rest have cited mostly women (sometimes specifically their mothers) as theirs. Woo hoo!
I’m thrilled because this is in stark contrast to what I heard at GHC back in October. There, women repeatedly cited their fathers as their key mentors. Granted, most of the women saying this were of a slightly older generation than those writing in this book… so perhaps this means that the feminist movement did succeed in creating a generation of women that was able to empower their daughters and other women! Still, at GHC, I felt that the speakers should have taken greater care in who they cited as key in their development and achievement; they were addressing a younger audience and the impression I got from some of their statements was that a man is necessary in guiding a woman to success in math, science, and engineering.
I’m sure this is not what these women intended to communicate, but it’s how the message was received on this end. I may be beyond the point where I’m looking for advice on finding mentors and inspiration, but I’m not beyond caring about the messages being sent to young women today! So again I say to all, go read She’s Such a Geek (the book and the blog) and give a copy of the book to young woman or mother of a girl!
Posted December 16, 2006 at 1:50 AM in Books, Geekout, Robots, Technology, Things I Love, Westinghouse | Comments Off
I just noticed that the Mansfield Memorial Museum Web site is up and running. Remember, that’s where you can go see the original Elektro (until April 2007).
And, great news! Scott Schaut’s book, Robots of Westinghouse will also be out soon. You can get it direct from the museum or you can pre-order from Amazon.
I can’t wait to read it and learn all about my favorite robot!
Posted October 30, 2006 at 5:09 PM in Just Sayin, Technology, Web Standards, Web Stuff | Comments (3)
There’s a interesting and fun post and comment thread about IE7 adoption over at WaSP, and it has me wondering… will IE6 linger like Netscape Navigator 4.x did?
Surely, no browser could take as long as NN4 to be purged from the systems of its dedicated users. Many WinXP SP2 users will be presented head-on with the option to upgrade via Windows Update very soon — and my guess is that most people will accept the upgrade, simply because they don’t know or care enough to learn about what they’re getting. I can already see members of my family just clicking “Yes” or “Accept” on whatever dialog box is displayed… they won’t even bother to call and ask me what they should do.
But if companies and ISPs are really suggesting to employees, clients, and users that they not upgrade to IE7, as one commenter suggests, will people listen? If companies and ISPs are making this recommendation, do they have any reason better than “we didn’t test our site in any of the IE7 release candidates and either we’re too stubborn to accommodate Microsoft or our developers don’t know how to fix the display problems in IE7″?
I only slightly jest in suggesting such an excuse — I’m sure there’s some company out there for which that is their reason. But how ridiculous! Ignorance on your part will only serve to frustrate and alienate users, not Microsoft. Not to mention how bad you, Company X, look for making such a statement.
No, I don’t really think IE6 will hang around as long as NN4. After the Windows Update, and then after the holidays, when many folks get new computers, we’ll see a big drop in its percentage. After that it will slowly decline, until Vista comes out. And by that point its share will probably be less than 20%, I would guess. I could be totally off — I haven’t worked tech support in a long time, but my gut has been right before, and this is what my gut tells me. Regardless, I don’t see IE6 CSS hacks going away, just as IE5 hacks haven’t totally disappeared. CSS is the new proprietary DOM, in that sense… and for a while longer we’ll have to keep forking code to handle specific browsers. IE7 doesn’t solve that problem…
Hi, my name is Kimberly Blessing. I'm a computer scientist, Web developer, standards evangelist, feminist, and geek. This is where I write about life, the Web, technology, women's issues, and whatever else comes to mind.
