by
Sun, Jun 03 2012 20:43:06
3

NYT's "MEN invented the internet"—the truth about women in tech history

A Twitter conversation responding to four words in the New York Times that pissed a lot of people off. My related Boing Boing post is here: http://goo.gl/T2BVu

  1. NYT: "MEN invented the internet"
    What a steaming turd of an opening line in David Streitfeld's otherwise serviceable New York Times piece about the Ellen Pao/Kleiner Perk...
    Boingboing
  2. LA proto-blogger Tony Pierce, whose mom was a programmer at the dawn of the Internet Age, felt like those first four words disrespected the contributions of pioneering women in technology.
  3. busblog
    Tony Pierce@busblog
    @xeni I'll tell my mom who programmed via punch cards in the '70s that her efforts didn't count according to @nytimes
    Sun, Jun 03 2012 07:35:07
  4. Tweets from many others whose mothers and grandmothers worked in tech during the internet's early days followed.
  5. TouchstoneZ
    Zoie@TouchstoneZ
    @xeni I doubt my mom, who put up with this crap in grad school, xerox & bell in the 70s & 80s, would be surprised that nothing has changed
    Sun, Jun 03 2012 08:23:12
  6. susankitchens
    Susan A. Kitchens@susankitchens
    @xeni A foto of my grandma & her classmates j.mp/Ma0VXy. She was @ MIT, class of 1920. Electro Chemical Engineering, Worked at GE.
    Sun, Jun 03 2012 09:42:35
  7. Family Oral History Using Digital Tools | MIT class of 1920: A gift in my email
    MIT class of 1920: A gift in my email This image is a gift, one I received in an email. My cousin sent it to me a couple of weeks back. S...
    Familyoralhistory
  8. themediatop
    Margret Bell@themediatop
    @xeni My Mom's killer UNIX and C compiler work at Bell Labs on switching systems in the early 80's, well, you know - she needed a hobby.
    Sun, Jun 03 2012 08:25:27
  9. lishevita
    Lisha Sterling@lishevita
    @xeni My grandmother was a programmer and mathematician back in the 50's and 60's. Her PhD thesis was published by her adviser as his own.
    Sun, Jun 03 2012 09:21:15
  10. mpmselenic
    Matt Mackall@mpmselenic
    @xeni My mother taught me to code. I chewed on her punch card stacks (aka Fortran programs) as a toddler.
    Sun, Jun 03 2012 12:40:40
  11. jashsf
    jash@jashsf
    @xeni my mom was the first female punch card operator and then sent herself to night school to learn COBOL. While raising 3 kids!
    Sun, Jun 03 2012 09:52:38
  12. kirkmurphy
    kirkmurphy@kirkmurphy
    @xeni My mom was the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's first editor-in-chief; that was in the 1950's.
    Sun, Jun 03 2012 09:50:06
  13. jacquez45
    Laura V@jacquez45
    hey @xeni, my grandma was a nurse & ALSO helped install & test some of the first computer systems in hospitals across the US
    Sun, Jun 03 2012 18:32:54
  14. uurf
    Chris Connors@uurf
    @xeni my mother _taught programming_ to USS 'management trainees' for IBM 1960-62.
    Sun, Jun 03 2012 09:54:57
  15. wendyck
    wendy knox everette@wendyck
    @xeni my mom worked as a punch card programmer in the 70s & bought our first home PC (ibm xt!) in the 80s that i learned to program on
    Sun, Jun 03 2012 10:48:46
  16. joeposner
    Joe Posner@joeposner
    @xeni my mom @eileenrudden helped make lotus notes -- as result I think we had one of first ADSL hookups in country
    Sun, Jun 03 2012 11:01:07
  17. blood_dragon
    Draconis Sanguineum@blood_dragon
    @xeni Loaded card decks for my grandmother in the 60s. My wife is a gifted programmer. I've SysAd for brilliant women. NYT is full of hooey.
    Sun, Jun 03 2012 09:25:41
  18. sysrequest
    System Request@sysrequest
    @mpmselenic @xeni My mother taught me about secure passwords. In 1984. She worked for CBNRC (now CSE, Canadian NSA).
    Sun, Jun 03 2012 16:36:18
  19. sheigh
    sheigh@sheigh
    Thx @xeni My late MIL wrote her 1st computer program in FORTRAN II, BASIC in the late 70's. She taught herself after her fam went to bed.
    Sun, Jun 03 2012 11:02:39
  20. There were stories of men who had formative experiences working with women in technology.
  21. rrragan
    Rich@rrragan
    @xeni I worked with Betty Holberton on FORTRAN standard. She was 1 of first 6 programmers on ENIAC-all women
    Sun, Jun 03 2012 07:53:50
  22. sfmnemonic
    Mike Godwin@sfmnemonic
    @xeni I knew women working on interface design when most male programmers' notion of user interface was RTFM
    Sun, Jun 03 2012 09:02:14
  23. NadyaDuke
    Nadya Duke@NadyaDuke
    @xeni My dad's first boss at his first programming job in 1973 was a woman. DoD too, you know, like DARPA
    Sun, Jun 03 2012 13:46:39
  24. mwlphelps
    Matt Phelps@mwlphelps
    @xeni I learned VAX /VMS Internals from the WOMAN who literally wrote the book, Ruth Goldenberg.
    Sun, Jun 03 2012 10:04:50
  25. DrewK
    Drew Keavey@DrewK
    @xeni Crap my life's a lie. Didn't get head start in tech career down to woman head programer, woman CEO& woman investing in software in 97.
    Sun, Jun 03 2012 10:42:29

Did you find this story interesting? or comment as 22 already did!

Liked!

Xeni Jardin

Madam Boing. Breast cancer isn't something I have, but something my body is currently doing. I tweet about this, and all that my mind is doing. [email protected]

2stories
538followers
21following
Total views
140,311

Sorry.

This URL is already in use. Please choose another URL.
Edit URL

Storify

@Storify

Are you sure?

Are you sure you want to delete this story?

Are you sure?

Are you sure you want to flag this story?