Gender imbalance is a recurring topic in the IT industry, as women are underrepresented in this field. There are also many people who believe that there is a certain degree of prejudice and discrimination against women in the entire industry, because some people believe that women are less capable than men in technical work.
In fact, the development of the computer industry has been inseparable from women from the very beginning. The term “computer” was coined long before computers, and refers to people whose profession is computing. Because women are usually more careful and make fewer mistakes when doing this kind of work, most of the “computers” at the time were women. These women made important contributions to many key scientific discoveries and the victory of World War II. Thence scientists during World War II measure the computing power not in megahertz, not in teraflops, but in kilo-girls — the power of a thousand girls.
The First Programmer: Ada Lovelace
As a woman who has made great contributions to the computer industry, Ada Lovelace is the first computer programmer in the world, also the daughtor of British poets Byron. Although her father is a famous British poet, it is her mother who supports Ada to study mathematics and science. In 1842, Ada spent nine months translating Italian mathematician Luigi Minabbia’s treatise on Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine. After the translation, she adds many notes detailing the method of calculating Bernoulli numbers with the machine, which is considered to be the world’s first computer program. However, some biographers still questioned the originality of Ada’s computer program because part of the program was written by Babbage himself.
“The Analytical Engine might act upon other things besides number, were objects found whose mutual fundamental relations could be expressed by those of the abstract science of operations, and which should be also susceptible of adaptations to the action of the operating notation and mechanism of the engine.”
Ada Lovelace
Even though she is such a great mathematician, it’s sad that Ada’s talent has always been questioned. Although Babbage designed the Analytical Engine, Ada was the first to foresee the potential of a general-purpose computer. Meanwhile, others only thought of using machines to crunch numbers. Coming from the lineage that emerges as IXD, Ada’s exploration on possibilities of computers contribute to the establishment of human-machine communication. Overcome all kinds of difficulties, her spirit of seeking knowledge and her exploration of the unknown are worth learning from.
