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Remarkable Lives of Women in Tech, 1930–1990

When I was very, very young, I would put myself to sleep with numerical problems.<br>— Phyllis Fox (b. 1923), mathematician and computer scientist

Far from being “hidden figures,” women have been working in computing since the earliest days of the new field. Unlike their male counterparts, however, they’ve often faced gender bias and discrimination in their own families, schools, and the workplace when pursuing their interest in mathematics, science, engineering, and technology. But they’ve always been there, in plain sight, for those who look for them.

Meet some amazing women from across the decades who share moments of their lives in computing and technology—from childhood to college, from their first job with computers through the ups and downs of their careers, and to the wisdom that comes with success, failure, and time.

Part of the cover of a 1958 IBM publication, The World of Numbers.

"I Love Math"

Childhood and Youth

An early interest in math, science, solving problems, and sports—particularly baseball—are recurring themes in the oral histories of tech-minded women. But American culture in the 1930s, ’40s, 50’s and beyond did not often portray women as mathematicians and scientists. Early computers were the domain of the government, large corporations . . . and men.

1955 brochure produced by the Bendix Aviation Corporation. Note the absence of women in the photo. Visit the collection to see the full brochure.

Girls were steered toward careers as teachers or nurses, but sometimes family members or a special mentor encouraged them to pursue their interest in math or science.

Jean Bartik

“We were all good in math in my family. So the fact that I was good in math wasn’t particularly noted," says Jean. What was noted was her youthful talent as a pitcher. She remembers:

"I was quite a star. So there used to be stories about me in the newspaper. And when I would go to town with my mother, people would stop me on the street, particularly men, and tell me what I’d done wrong in the last game and how I should do things.”

Born Elizabeth (Betty) Jean Jennings in 1924, Jean was one of the original six programmers for the ENIAC computer and thus one of the first computer programmers in the world. She’s on the left in this photo.

Check out the collection to learn more about the photo. See Jean’s oral history.

Evelyn Berezin

Born in 1925, Evelyn became interested in physics when she started reading her older brother’s Astounding Science magazines and science fiction books from the library. She says:

"I remember going to my science teacher in junior high and asking him about something I had read. It was the idea that when something goes very fast, close to the speed of light, it gets smaller in the direction of the movement (the Lorentz contraction). So I asked him about this, and he said, ‘Oh no, that’s not science. They’re making it up.'"

But after graduating from high school at 15, Evelyn went to college and learned her teacher had been wrong. She later earned an additional degree in physics and became a renowned computer designer.

CHM has a fun collection of science fiction books. See Evelyn’s oral history.

Margaret Hamilton

Margaret was born in 1936, and math was her favorite subject. She says, "What I did not like was Home Ec, because girls were supposed to take it."

Margaret became a computer programmer and led the software team that put men on the moon. In this iconic photo, she’s standing beside a tower of printouts of Apollo Guidance Computer source code.

Read more in this blog. See Margaret’s oral history.

Straight-A Students

Higher Education

Women interested in math, science, and engineering often faced the bias of male professors or constricting college rules when they sought out higher education in the fields they cared about. Some of their fellow female students seemed to be more focused on finding a husband than on getting a degree, according to computer scientist Phyllis Fox, who attended Wellesley in the 1940s.

A selection of technical books from CHM’s extensive collection.

Lois Britton, cofounder of the iconic Whole Earth Catalog, loved to take things apart to see how they worked, but she decided not to pursue a career in engineering in the 1960s.

I think the real thing that threw a wrench in it was when I was taking physics, studying electricity, I was told when I came into the lab that I was not allowed to plug any machinery in because I obviously, being a woman, didn’t know the difference between alternating and direct current.<br>— Lois Britton

Lois earned a degree in math. Other women got creative about overcoming barriers.

Ann Hardy

Ann’s college advisor in the 1950s was the chair of the chemistry department, but he wouldn’t let her major in it. He said, “Women in advanced chemistry labs are too distracting.” She...