During Women’s History Month, we like to celebrate the many achievements and milestones of women around the world, but especially those rooted in science and technology. As a technology company that is also a woman-owned small business, the hard work of women everywhere does not go unnoticed in our offices and it’s something we like to call attention to whenever possible. Here are a few of our favorite techie women and their amazing accomplishments:
Women Technology Pioneers
- Ada Lovelace
Ada Lovelace, born in 1815, is widely known as the “first programmer”. Her mother had her homeschooled in science and mathematics as a young girl and her work includes her focus on the notion that a specific engine could be built with the ability to transition from a calculation to computation. The second Tuesday of October is known as Ada Lovelace Day as a nod to all of the achievements of women in STEM careers.
- Grace Hopper
Grace Hopper was born in 1906 and attended Yale University where she received a Ph.D. in mathematics. She joined the Naval Reserve shortly after where she worked with Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corp. During her time with Eckert-Mauchly, she designed a compiler that translated a programmer’s instructions into computer code. A few years later, she developed the first English language data processing compiler. She received several awards over the course of her career, one of them being the Presidential Medal of Freedom that was awarded to her by Former President Barack Obama in 2016.
- Hedy Lamarr
Hedy was a self-taught inventor, awarded for a patent for her “secret communication system” in 1942. The system was intended to be a way to set radio-guided torpedoes off course during wartimes, but eventually the idea inspired technology we use on a daily basis today, like Wi-Fi, GPS, and Bluetooth.
- Annie Easley
When we talk about women in technology, Easley is always at the top of the list. Easley was a NASA rocket scientist and a trailblazer for women, and specifically black women, in the technology space. Her work as a computer scientist laid the foundations for space shuttle launches for years to come.
- Reshma Saujani
Saujani is the founder of the tech organization, Girls Who Code, a nonprofit organization that was built to support and increase the number of women working in computer science. Saujani founded the organization upon noticing the lack of presence of women in technology positions and women-led organizations. Girls Who Code will help to equip young women with the technology skills necessary to pursue a career in computer programming and the technology industry, potentially increasing the amount of women working in these career fields in the future.
- Danah Boyd
Boyd is a Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research and the founder of Data & Society, a website focused on producing original research on various technology topics, like AI and automation, the impact of technology on labor and health, and more. Boyd received a Ph.D. at the School of Information at the University of California – Berkeley and her Master’s Degree at MIT. Her work with Data & Society calls out the rippling effects and changes of technology and her work at Microsoft Research has been applied in biomedical machine learning, economics and computation, and more.
The women listed above are just a handful of the many women that have significantly impacted the technology industry and whose achievements deserve to be celebrated. This March, we lift up the voices of women in tech around the world and celebrate their important contributions.