I don't really get it.
Why's it matter that some of the first people entering programs on a computer were women.
Does the converse hold true too - that we should focus on the "engineers" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Bartik, "after learning how the machine worked only by reviewing diagrams of the device and by talking to its engineers: there was no manual") who were presumably* all male (?). And say to everyone look the predecessors of today's computer engineers were all men, and they wore suits to work.
Seems weird.
What also seems weird is that in all the ENIAC articles and the biographical details linked from the ENIAC stuff (eg http://quest.nasa.gov/space/frontiers/bartik.html) when the programming is mentioned it's not mentioned that Mauchly and Eckert were part of the programming team. Indeed it's said in a few places (that NASA link) that the women had no help other than logic diagrams in creating the programs. But elsewhere - Jean Bartik article in Wikipedia - it mentions that they talked with the engineers. It seems they are making pains to say this was a team of females, alone, with no male members; but Mauchly and Eckert were part of the team, no?
Didn't they all work together? Was there segregation that prevented Bartik, McNulty, and the other female workers from being considered peers in the effort along with Mauchly and Eckert. Did they really prevent the programmers from learning from the engineers how to program the machine somehow; didn't the engineers get involved at all in the design of programmes?
- - -
* - as it's not mentioned and surely would be; not because I think all engineers are male.
Why's it matter that some of the first people entering programs on a computer were women.
Does the converse hold true too - that we should focus on the "engineers" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Bartik, "after learning how the machine worked only by reviewing diagrams of the device and by talking to its engineers: there was no manual") who were presumably* all male (?). And say to everyone look the predecessors of today's computer engineers were all men, and they wore suits to work.
Seems weird.
What also seems weird is that in all the ENIAC articles and the biographical details linked from the ENIAC stuff (eg http://quest.nasa.gov/space/frontiers/bartik.html) when the programming is mentioned it's not mentioned that Mauchly and Eckert were part of the programming team. Indeed it's said in a few places (that NASA link) that the women had no help other than logic diagrams in creating the programs. But elsewhere - Jean Bartik article in Wikipedia - it mentions that they talked with the engineers. It seems they are making pains to say this was a team of females, alone, with no male members; but Mauchly and Eckert were part of the team, no?
Didn't they all work together? Was there segregation that prevented Bartik, McNulty, and the other female workers from being considered peers in the effort along with Mauchly and Eckert. Did they really prevent the programmers from learning from the engineers how to program the machine somehow; didn't the engineers get involved at all in the design of programmes?
- - -
* - as it's not mentioned and surely would be; not because I think all engineers are male.