Running Head: Women in Early Computer Science

Women in Early Computer Science

Hernan Garcia

University of Texas at El Paso

RWS 1302
 It may be hard to believe, but most of computing pioneers were women. Maybe

hard to believe is not a good way to put it, how about, widely unknown. Now, there

might be a lot of question regarding the following statement. Were women actually

computing pioneers? Why would it be widely unknown? If women were computing

pioneers, how did men take over technology and computer science? Those are all good

questions! These will all be answered in this page jus to give a bit more knowledge about

the role that women played in a now, male-dominated, work field.

To begin with, the first person to ever publish an algorithm to be use in a working

computer was a woman. Ada Lovelace was one of the first programmers back in 1842. Of

course, this was back when computers were even a household item. Fast forward to 1949

and theres Grace Hopper creating tools for computer scientists.

So, what was Grace Hoppers deal? Well, she only created the first compiler. She

helped develop COBOL. Without going into much detail, COBOL is a programming

language that was meant mostly for business and finance use. It is actually still used to this

day in some banks because it is hard to hack. Thanks to Hopper people were able to have a

temple to create more object-oriented programming languages, thats right, just like C,

C++, and even java.

The 1950s were actually a good decade for women in computer science actually.

During this time men had barely come from the war 5 years ago, and the only people back

in the motherland USA to take care of jobs that had to deal with computer science were

women. Once men came back from the war being in front of the computer seemed like a
womanly thing to do, right next to cooking dinner. It just seemed easy. This time was

when women in computer science were at an all time high actually.

Then what happened? Well, once computers became commercialized parents began

to buy computers for their kids, kind of like toys. Computers were often marketed more

towards boys and more boys grew up playing in the computer, and now we have our

culture. The one that has the computer geek defined as a scrawny, acne riddled BOY.

During these times it tended to be frowned upon for women to be in computer

science. The movie Hidden Figures and the TV show Halt the Catch Fire, both depict

life for women in early computer science. It is very interesting how they became alienated

to what they helped establish.

The audiences that both genres were trying to reach were slightly different. For

example, Hidden Figures tried to reach a general audience with a PG rating because it

displayed scenes with racism, while Halt the Catch Fire was a little more for teens and

adults. Since both genres main point is to make money, they had a wide audience.

Even thought the audience that both genres grasped was large, the discourse

community that they are both in is very much the same. The main community that they fall

under is a feminist discourse community. Maybe feminist will have a negative connotation

to it, but that is not the case right now. Both genres are pro-women, they show that women

were often over looked, but even when people were not expecting much from them, they

would go above and beyond to be successful. In the movie Hidden Figures it would be to

successfully calculate the launching of a space shuttle and being reassigned to the Analyst

and Computation Division even after being laid off. For Halt the Catch Fire it would be
to jump on board the new technology wave as it begins to catch fire. Overall these both

genres carry the same message. The Yes, we can message that every group of people

want to hear.

Both genres are meant to entertain first, in order to make a profit. However,

Hidden Figures serves also to inform not only what women went through, but also

women of color. Its ironic how the women in the film were discriminated twice. Since they

were women and were not seen as capable of conducting a mans work and since they were

black and people of color have been discriminated against for decades.

Returning again to the topic of women, both of these genres built their credibility in

order to appeal to their audience by Ethos, they both had recognized actresses portraying

their lead female role. Very important to note this since one of the first thing the audience

will see when looking at a film or TV show will be the cast. The TV series Halt the Catch

Fire uses pathos throughout the series in order to keep the attention of the audience, since

it is a drama show they use this in order to maintain their viewer retention. Hidden

Figures is slightly different since movies typically run for around two hours it is not

needed to use pathos in the same way, however it is important to keep the audience

emotionally attached to what is happening on screen. They achieved this by making the

audience relate by using the theme of an underdog. The group of African American ladies

in the movie I portrayed as the underdog. They face bias and in order to get their goal done

they will overcome said bias. In this case their goal was to launch and orbit space shuttle

Friendship 7.
 The rhetorical strategy that was not used was logos. Heres why, both the movie and

the TV show want to inform about the struggle of women in computer science, but the

genre is still has a weakness of making a profit. Of course they have to inform, but most

importantly they have to entertain. Logos is a good way to inform the audience, in fact in

some cases it may be good in order to keep the audience engaged as well. However, logos

tends to play very little in movies and TV shows since it is not something people actively

seek.

Both of these genres did well in achieving their purpose to entertain. However,

Halt the Catch Fire could have been more profitable. Sure they aired and got outstanding

reviews. However, their show did not grow as much as other shows, for example The Big

Bang Theory which is similar. On the other hand Hidden Figures was very profitable,

sure it was not a big blockbuster but the gross profit the film made was outstanding as well

as getting good reviews. Not to mention the fact that they did not sacrifice their film being

informative.
Hidden Figures. Directed by Garth Davis, performances by Taraji Henson, Octavia

Spencer, Janelle Monae, Fox 2000 Pictures.

Christopher Cantwell, Christopher C. Rogers, creators. Halt the Catch Fire. AMC Studios,

2014.