I can't read the pay-walled WSJ article but it looks like it's related to the recent book by Dr. Marie Hicks. She recent gave a talk at the Computer History Museum, which covers an example very close to what you objected to.
At https://youtu.be/WTLJ7saIV3o?t=2198 you can see the advertisement "This typist can control your invoicing, stock records and sales statistics all at once ... electronically, but not without help from Susie her computer."
Hicks then says that ad copy goes on to describe the types of programming this typist will be doing, "but she's still just a typist, not a programmer."
I therefore believe the proponents argument isn't that they themselves conflate the two, but that (British) computing in the 1960s did the conflation.
As for Adm. Hopper, yes, certainly some women stayed in the field. But then there's pictures like https://youtu.be/WTLJ7saIV3o?t=999 where a woman in her 20s or 30s has a "retirement" party, because she's getting married, so has to leave the workforce - which could be compulsory or coerced.
Then once it was realized that programming was more than a clerical task, women were more and more forced out because it was expected that women were going to leave once they got married.
At https://youtu.be/WTLJ7saIV3o?t=2198 you can see the advertisement "This typist can control your invoicing, stock records and sales statistics all at once ... electronically, but not without help from Susie her computer."
Hicks then says that ad copy goes on to describe the types of programming this typist will be doing, "but she's still just a typist, not a programmer."
I therefore believe the proponents argument isn't that they themselves conflate the two, but that (British) computing in the 1960s did the conflation.
As for Adm. Hopper, yes, certainly some women stayed in the field. But then there's pictures like https://youtu.be/WTLJ7saIV3o?t=999 where a woman in her 20s or 30s has a "retirement" party, because she's getting married, so has to leave the workforce - which could be compulsory or coerced.
Then once it was realized that programming was more than a clerical task, women were more and more forced out because it was expected that women were going to leave once they got married.