While the birth of digital
devices is usually associated with Bill Gates or Steve Jobs, the first
computer was programmed by a group of six women. It was built in the 1940s and
this event is celebrated every year on the 15th of February.
It was called The Electronic Numerical Integrator And
Computer (ENIAC). It was an accomplishment
on the journey towards the technological era we are currently in. It was
designed by John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert of the University of
Pennsylvania. A fact which is largely ignored or forgotten is that the job of
programming this device was given to six women named Fran Bilas, Betty
Jennings, Ruth Lichterman, Kay McNulty, Betty Snyder and Marlyn Wescoff.
During that time, computers were programmed manually through a physical system
of adjusting switches and cables. Debugging a program implied climbing inside
the ENIAC in search of faulty connections and a new one had to be designed on
paper and then implemented with extreme precision. Setting up a full program
could take weeks.
The women were chosen because of their acumen calculating
ballistics tables with a desk calculator and a differential analyzer before the
ENIAC
could be introduced. However, at that time, technical mastery was not
considered to be a major contribution and the programmers were seen as mere
operators.
The
first computer ever was programmed by women
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