When the bricks and mortar of the software world were being laid, there were a number of people who were spending long hours at work designing machines and complex programming languages many of which were women.
Coding and programming have more than often been regarded as domains where men know the game better. But is that really so? I think differently. If we look back and explore, we’ll find that women have done exceptional work in this space. Through their creativity, knowledge and willpower they have developed and executed some of the most successful programs, many of which are still operational.
While women have successfully worked behind the scenes in the tech world, a number of them are also in positions of management and leadership, working to expand the business and in the midst of all this creating a space for more women to join and lead.
Here are some stories of women who lead major companies and organisation in the space of technology:
Neelam Dhawan, is the Managing Director of HP, in India. Her imagination, skills and the ability to think out of the box have led her company to launch some great products and services. HCL BusyBee which is often seen as the first affordable desktop is a result of her efforts. She understood her customers well and developed something that could match the needs and as well as the spending capacity of her clientele. She joined HP in 1999, after which she joined Microsoft. In 2008, she was named the India head of HP.
Narayanan, like many others, joined IBM the multinational technology company as a management trainee, but her grit and determination helped her work her way up the corporate ladder, today she is the India head for telecom at IBM.
Grace Murray Hopper was the lady who developed the first compiler, which ultimately led to the genesis of a language named COBOL. While she was working in the Navy she used to fix bugs in the system which subsequently led her to coin the term ‘debugging’. A word now commonly used by every coder and programmer. An idol for many, her hard work and motivation are the only reasons for her success.
Edith Clarke was a university lecturer who later went on to become the first female electrical engineer. In her busy schedule, she used her spare time in developing a calculator and named it the Clarke Calculator, this device made electrical studies simpler and faster for many students.
Parisa Tabriz is a white hat hacker at Google and leads a team of 30. Known as the security princess, she looks out for hackers who might cause trouble for Google. She loves her job and feels that determination and passion are the only two hacks for success.
The “Internet” would have never been a reality without Radia Perlmann. She developed the Spanning tree Protocol, an invention which was an essential tool for the internet to become functional. Perlmann also went on to create a language called TORTIS and subsequently worked to create STP a quintessential tool for the internet to function in the way that it does.
In an extremely competitive sphere where everything is fast paced and constantly changing, it becomes particular tough to manage both the fronts, but these ladies are changing the game.
About the Author:
Vaishnavi Agrawal loves pursuing excellence through writing and has a passion for technology. She has successfully managed and run personal technology magazines and websites. She currently writes for intellipaat.com, a global training company that provides e-learning and professional certification training.