To mark Girls in ICT Day 2020, we are celebrating some of the women who have made a difference with ICT. These women created change in an industry that is tradtionally dominated by men, and have therefore laid the foundations for future generations of girls to succeed.
Why do we need girls in ICT? To paraphrase one of the women featured in this article… if computer systems aren’t just used by men, should they just be created by men? Therefore, we need girls in ICT to help create the systems that we all use.
Giving girls access to ICT gives them the skills to succeed in the 21st century. This is especially relevant for Creating Better Futures. We have partnered with the United Kingdom Department for International Development to deliver ICT projects to children in Zimbabwe.
We hope the women in this article can inspire the girls in our schools! Please see our child sponsorship page to find out how you can give a girl this opportunity.
Annie Easley
Who was she?
Annie Easley was an African American computer scientist, rocket scientist and mathematician.
How did she make a difference?
She was one of the first African Americans to work at NASA.
Importantly, Easley’s work extended beyond what she represented. She played a crucial role in the development of several technological advancements. Some of these, such as space shuttle and weather satellite equipment, still have use today. She also helped to implement computer code in order to find alternative power energies such as wind and solar energy.
Grace Hopper
Who was she?
Grace Hopper was an American computer scientist and Navy rear admiral.
How did she make a difference?
Grace Hopper was one of the pioneering women in technology.
Hopper played a vital role in the growth of computer coding. She invented FLOW-MATIC, which was the first data processing language. This had a far reaching legacy and even inspired the creation of COBOL, which has become the Navy’s standard operating language.
In short, Hopper laid the foundations for the generations of women in ICT that followed.
Isis Nyong’o
Who is she?
Isis Nyong’o is Kenyan American technology and media entrepreneur.
How has she made a difference?
She founded Mum’s Village. This online platform enhances the mother and baby experience in Kenya. It gives Mothers and pregnant women easy access to nannies, doctors and nutritionist advice and support.
Dr Sue Black
Who is she?
Sue Black is a professor of computer science in the University of Durham.
How has she made a difference?
Dr Black is a major advocate for gender equality in stem roles. She understands the impotance of getting women into these areas because “at the moment, most technologies are created by men – and … the users of technology aren’t all men.” We all benefit when girls participate in ICT.
To help address this problem, she set up BCSWomen. This is a specialist network for women in the technology industry, designed to help them succeed.
You could help girls and young children to learn ICT. By sponsoring a child’s education you could help them and push them towards their academic dreams and maybe be the next Grace Hopper.
