Fran Allen’s Turing Award Lecture

Posted July 31, 2007 at 1:00 PM | Tagged as: Computing, People I Admire, Women! | Comments Off

The ACM has posted video of Fran Allen’s Turing Award lecture. Go check it out!

Delivered by Frances E. Allen, recipient of ACM’s 2006 A. M. Turing Award, the presentation calls for software systems designers to develop new tools that can improve the performance of computer software.

Allen, the first woman to win the Turing Award, issued the challenge in her Turing Award Lecture, delivered in June at the 2007 FCRC Conference in San Diego, CA.

Ms. Allen received the 2006 A.M. Turing Award for “pioneering contributions to the theory and practice of optimizing compiler techniques that laid the foundation for modern optimizing compilers and automatic parallel execution.” In her Turing Award Lecture presentation, she warns that computer software capabilities have fallen far behind the capabilities of computer hardware, and proposes several approaches to boost the performance of software in the face of the new hardware developments.

Some girls play with dolls. Real women…

Posted July 18, 2007 at 4:08 AM | Tagged as: Just Sayin, Meeeeeeee, Women! | Comments Off

I tore this ad out of one of my skateboarding magazines in the mid-80s, and as you can see, it’s beat to hell, having been pinned and taped to various surfaces over the years.

Growing up, messages like this one really spoke to me. Even as a kid, I didn’t want to be seen as a girl. I was a woman, strong and self-confident, capable of doing anything that any guy could do. (Though, to be honest, I wasn’t a very good skateboarder. But the important thing is that I tried!)

So what I want to know is… where are the messages like this one for kids today? Everything seems so dumbed-down, or watered-down, with a “let’s be subtle, the kids will get it” type of approach, so as not to offend or oppress stupid boys. I want aggro, in your face, straight-up shit that burgeoning young feminists can get behind, dammit!

Hmm, that gives me an idea. Check back for more on this later.

Oh, and did you notice that the ad is pink, but that it still kicks ass? I had a pink Rodney Mullen freestyle deck, too… though I really wanted it in white, but the skate shop was out of them. Anyway, pink isn’t just for girls… it’s for real women, too!

Survey of Women Working in IT

Posted June 29, 2007 at 3:19 PM | Tagged as: Computing, Technology, Women! | Comments Off

The K-12 Informal Education Hub of the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT), led by the Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA), is conducting a three-phase study to determine what experiences or factors influence females to pursue a career in information technology (IT). Study results will help guide efforts to increase the number of women entering IT fields. We would appreciate your help in disseminating the survey to as many technical women as possible. Please forward this email to other women you know working in IT.

Take the survey!

Congress honors Fran Allen

Posted June 12, 2007 at 11:50 PM | Tagged as: Computing, People I Admire, Women! | Just 1 Comment

While I was dealing with all sorts of travel problems this past weekend, Telle Whitney was in San Diego to see Fran Allen receive the Turing Award. I hope Telle took pictures, because the ACM still hasn’t learned to use online social networking tools to quickly distribute the media that its members want to see…

However, while I was looking around for photos or video from the awards banquet, I found this Congressional resolution, passed by the House of Representatives on May 1 (how’d I miss this?), which honors:

…the pioneering life work of Frances Allen in computer research and development and salutes the Turing Award Committee for recognizing, through the selection of Frances Allen, that creative women have contributed mightily to the development of this important field.

I’m not sure what made me tear up more: Fran receiving such recognition or the acknowledgment that women have made great contributions to computer science.

Younger Women at the Top

Posted May 10, 2007 at 11:21 AM | Tagged as: Business, Women! | Comments Off

According to the Dartmouth Tuck School of Business and Loyola University, as reported in the April 2007 issue of the Harvard Business Review, women who make it into senior management roles in Fortune 1,000 companies get there faster than men.

Though nearly half of Fortune 1,000 firms still have no female executive officers, those that do seem to be aggressively hiring and promoting them into the top ranks. As the chart shows, a much larger percentage of Fortune 1,000 women have made it to executive officer positions in their thirties, forties, and fifties than have men their age. What’s more, these women achieved their executive positions at a younger average age than the men did (46.7 versus 51.1) and have less tenure on average than men in their current positions (2.6 years versus 3.5 years).

Check out the chart, too: Younger Women at the Top.