Evil Widgets

Rear Admiral Grace Hopper, aka "Amazing Grace"

Today is Ada Lovelace Day. It’s a chance to honor women in science, technological, engineering, or mathematical fields (also known as STEM) who inspired you to do what you do.

You may or may not know that I currently work as a Quality Assurance Specialist at a software company. That means that I test our software to make sure it works as it was designed to do; that there are no “bugs” in the software – anything that make it fail, crash, not display correctly, or even typographical errors in menus.

I never intended to go into a technology field – that was entirely by accident! Like any child what I wanted to be when I “grew up” changed – I wanted to be a detective,  journalist, archaeologist, writer, or a police officer. When I was old enough that it stopped changing, my plan was to be a police officer and eventually join the FBI. Occasionally, computers crossed my path, and were very interesting to me. By the time I got to college, I was taking computer classes and helping out in the computer lab from time to time.

It was a lack of confidence and mentors, as well as the limitations of my very bad eyesight that led me away from criminal justice and into computer science. For the first time, I had adults telling me “hey, you’re good at that!” and asking for help when something happened with a machine, instead of discouraging me.

I always loved science-oriented shows on television, and one of the earliest computer-related personalities I remember being impressed with is Grace Hopper (b.1906-d.1992). Not only was she a woman in a position of power and respect, but she was an older woman in that position as well.

Here is a video from 1982, where Grace Hopper was interviewed on 60 minutes. I remember seeing her give the explanation on what a nanosecond is on a children’s show, but I can’t remember what show it was.

As you can see, while Admiral Hopper was amazing as far as computer science goes, she was still toeing the military’s “party line” of no women in combat. I really wonder what she would have to say if she were still around today.

Admiral Hopper’s brand of humorous explanation of computer related concepts was a real influence on me. In my career, I’ve provided support to end users and done a lot of training of new support techs. You have to find way to explain concepts that people can relate to and understand, and Hopper was a master at it.

If you know a young woman who is interested in STEM fields, please provide her with encouragement, support, and resources! It will mean more than you know – to that young woman, to your country’s future, and to the world. Happy Ada Lovelace Day!