Fun Friday: Turing Goes Pink

Well, it finally happened. The Turing award went to a woman. Frances Allen, IBM Fellow, began her career teaching FORTRAN in 1957 (the year of Sputnik) at a time when nobody really knew what to do with those big clunky room-sized computers and "computer science" didn't exist as a discipline. By the end of her career, she had worked on parallel computing and high performance computing initiatives such as PTRAN, and also become a mentor to many younger scientists. An honorable career.

Ms. Allen is an absolutely delightful person. In a recent interview, she openly admitted that her entry to IBM was motivated more by money than enthusiasm for the company (she preferred teaching math), and that once the field was professionalized, women had a much harder time ("...in the '60s things got pretty bleak for women"). She also expressed surprise and disappointment that this field has never attained the same levels of women's participation as have other rigorous (and time-consuming) fields such as medicine. Since it wasn't really a matter of putting in the time, it appears that once this rather free-spirited group worked out a number of hard fundamental questions, IBM found it easier and easier to recruit based on a given set of metrics and criteria which not surprisingly would have precluded many of the people who they had hired to figure things out. "Computer science became a science and it became much more structured to people that were being hired, and there were mostly men that met the requirements. It significantly changed the workplace."

I understand her perspective. As I discussed in a piece in the San Francisco Chronicle in 2003, in the early 1980's women also streamed into the computer industry as new startups were funded and the personal computer revolution began. But opportunities dried up pretty quickly with the first economic dip, and the first to go were the women hires to get "lean and mean". As a consequence, even today it's not easy to find women in their 40's who have the line management experience and technical background necessary to achieve upper management positions. And oftentimes those who got rid of people because they weren't "ruthless enough" (code words for women and family men) with no regard to skills and relationships (yes, relationships matter) would end up isolated, with a wrecked product line or a wrecked business.

Will we ever learn? Well, they did in medicine and many areas in biology and even areas of physics, so I presume computer science will catch up eventually -- if it even lasts as a true academic "discipline".

******

Todd Brooks memorial service was held a few days ago. Family, friends and colleagues gave testament to his compassion, humor and vision. In Paul's letter to the Colossians (Colossians 1:27-28) he wrote that "what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory; whom we proclaim, admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus". Perfection, in our conduct to others and to ourselves, is a great struggle and a necessary one. Singular acts do not always take away from the totality of life, as the minister noted, nor do they always redeem it. While standing in witness as a singer perhaps I find the lyrics of "Amazing Grace" most cogent:

Through many dangers, toils and snares...
I have already come.
T'was Grace that brought me safe thus far...
and Grace will lead me home.

Rest in peace, Todd. And God bless your family and friends.