It was Women's day yesterday. We had a small discussion in my room about women's contribution towards the computer related fields. We could hardly come up with some names. And so, at the end, we concluded that women are "weak" in computations. Today, I was passing time, and came across some information that I was unaware of.
Here are some of the womens who are remembered for their pioneering efforts in the field of computation.
1. Ada Lovelace (1815-1852), promoter of Charles Babbage's analytical engine
2. Grace Hopper (1906-1992), first programmer for the Mark I Calculator
3. Kay McNulty, Betty Snyder, Marlyn Wescoff, Ruth Lichterman, Betty Jennings, and Fran Bilas, original programmers of the ENIAC
4. Jean E. Sammet (1928), mathematician and computer scientist; developed FORMAC programming language
5. Barbara H. Liskov (1939), first American female Doctorate of Computer Science (1968)
6. Irma Wyman, first Honeywell CIO
7. Sally Floyd (computer scientist), most renowned for her work on Transmission Control Protocol[1]
8. Frances E. Allen, first female recipient of the ACM'S Turing Award
9. Anita Borg, the founding director of the Institute for Women and Technology (IWT)
10. Shafi Goldwasser, theoretical computer scientist, two time recipient of the Godel Prize
11. Eva Tardos, recipient of the Fulkerson Prize
This list was sufficient to prove the fallacy of our conclusion!!!
Happy Women's Day... :)
7 comments:
:-) Nice to see your posting on Women's day...
But frankly, what is the significance of having 'Women's day'? I feel like I am one of 'minority' species who needs a special day to be remembered and honored.. A day to announce humbug programs for upliftment of women etc etc and then cosily forget about it for the rest of the year!
Instead it would be much better if men would just respect women for their individuality and not view them as just objects of desire!
If we really believe in equality, we should just do away with this concept! Or still better have a 'men's day' :P
Btw, this is not directed to you :-) Just my thoughts on 'Women's day'.
Yes. I also don't believe in the concept of days. Celebrating these days has nothing to do with the actual meaning of it. Rather, these are the means people use to show that women are not capable of doing anything on their own. We are always told that womens need empowerment and all. The equality will come only when people treat women with respect. And this won't happen, until women fight for their rights.
I don't think women have to fight for rights.. Women have to earn their rights! We don't need any days.. We don't need any reservations, but one thing we do need is the freedom to do what we want to and not have restrictions from family and surroundings just because we are women! Shun away the age old customs that inhibit women from progress... This is more true incase of backward areas actually.
To start with - we shouldn't have 'Women only' seats reserved in the PMT buses.
Great...
Actually, I was about to come to the point of PMT buses reservation. :-)
But I would like to take up your point of old customs. I don't understand people keep on saying that the customs are wrong. Customs are not always wrong. Some of the scholars in ancient India believe that women enjoyed equal status with men in all fields of life.
Works by ancient Indian grammarians such as Patanjali and Katyayana suggest that women were educated in the early Vedic period.Rigvedic verses suggest that the women married at a mature age and were probably free to select their husband. Scriptures such as Rig Veda and Upanishads mention several women sages and seers,viz. Gargi and Maitreyi.
However if we look at the current situation, we didn't believe that this was the land where womens were worshiped . So, I feel that the customs are not wrong , we are using customs as a medium to make things happen our way.
I haven't really read the vedas or upanishads or any old scriptures, so my knowledge wrt them maybe misplaced. However by customs, I mean what I have seen over the years.. and I can see that it has affected progress by manifolds not only in case of women but in other walks of life as well!
But whatever be the situation, I truly believe its only women who can uplift themselves.. the urge for progress should come from women.. support, respect are secondary but are going to be instrumental for the success.. !
Exactly.
And we are seeing that urge these days. Of course, there are still miles to go, but it's a beginning. On the contrary, there places where womens are harassed, but one day will come where we will find an unbiased society.
Anyways, don't you think we took this Women's Day too seriously?
;-)
hehe :-)
Well, the point is we don't want to have 'Women's day' which doesn't serve any purpose and is not required!
Anyway, we are on the same page so mark this as the end :-)
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