Celebrating International Day of Women and Girls in Science

Many people may think that women in the sciences is a modern phenomenon. While it is true that women have not been as prominent in the sciences as men, they have been active in research since the ancient world. According to United Nations data, less than 30% of scientific researchers worldwide are women (Kent, 2020) We often hear of studies revealing that women are discouraged from entering the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (known as the STEM fields) beginning at a young age. Although I don’t remember being discourage from these fields as student, I also feel I wasn’t actively encouraged either. According to the Pew Research Center, women are still underrepresented in engineering, computer science and physical science (Kent, 2020). As today is the UN’s International Day of Women and Girls in Science, I would like to feature three revolutionizing women whose discoveries have led to the advancement in their fields and our daily lives.

Alice Augusta Ball was born on July 24, 1892 in Seattle, Washington. Her family would move to Honolulu in hopes that the warmer weather would help her grandfather’s arthritis. They would move back to Seattle after one year. She would attend Seattle High School and graduated in 1940, receiving top grades in the sciences. Ball studied chemistry at the University of Washington, receiving bachelor’s in pharmaceutical chemistry and pharmacy. With her pharmacy professor, she published a 1o page article, “Benzoylations in Ether Solution,” in the prestigious Journal of American Chemical Society, a rare accomplishment, not just for an African American woman but any woman. Ball pursued her master’s degree at the University of Hawaii, where she developed a groundbreaking treatment for leprosy (Kent, 2020). Current treatments for leprosy was oil from the chaulmoogra tree, however; it was difficult to use orally or topically, and it was too thick to inject (Kent, 2020). Ball discovered the ester ethyl form of the oil which made it water soluble and dissolvable in the bloodstream and thus injectable. She died on December 31, 1916 before she could publish her findings. The president of the university at the time tried to claim the discovery as his own until Ball’s supervisor would speak publicly giving Ball the credit (Kent, 2020).

Grace Brewster (nee Murray) Hopper was born December 9, 1906 in New York City. She would earn her bachelor’s degrees from Vassar College in mathematics and physics in 1928. She would go on to Yale where she earned a master’s in mathematics (1930) and a PhD in mathematical physics (1934). After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Hopper joined the war effort. Initially rejected because of her age (34) and her size (her weight to height ration was too low), she persisted and joined the US Naval Reserve (Women’s Reserve) in December 1943. She was assigned to the Bureau of Ships Computation Project at Harvard University (Yale News, 2017). While working on the Mark II, she dismantled a malfunction computer to find a moth, causing the problem. Although mechanical malfunctions have been referred to as bugs since the 19^th century, Hopper became the first person to call computer problems “bugs” (Kent, 2020) and speak of “debugging” a computer (Yale News, 2017). Her trailblazing career in both the US Navy and the private sector helped development the computer languages we know today. She would continue to work in her field until her death on January 1, 1992 at the age of 85. She was buried at Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors.

The ENIAC was the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer. It was the first electronic general-purpose computer which was completed in 1945. The women known as the ENIAC Programmers are Kay McNulty (1921-2006), Betty Jennings (1924-2011), Betty Snyder (1917-2001), Marlyn Meltzer (1922-2008), Fran Bilas (1922-2012) and Ruth Lichterman (1924-1986). They were drawn from a group of about two hundred women employed as computers at the Moore School of Electrical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania (Grier, 2007) at a time when there were very few technical jobs for women. The job title of "programmer" or “operator” were not considered suitable for women, however, the male labor shortage created by World War II helped enable their entry into the field (Light, 1999). McNulty, Jennings, Snyder, Meltzer, Bilas and Lichterman developed a method to input ENIAC programs and eventually developed an understanding of the machine’s inner workings. They were often able to narrow bugs down to a specific failed tube (Fritz, 1996). Betty Snyder helped write the first generative programming system (SORT/MERGE) and help design the first commercial electronic computers, the UNIVAC and the BINAC, alongside Betty Jennings (Beyer, 2012). Kay McNulty developed the use of subroutines in order to help increase ENIAC's computational capability (Isaacson, 2014). In 2010, PBS aired a documentary, “Top Secret Rosies: The “Computers” of WWII” which featured the contribution of these six women.

In conclusion, women in science have made important contributions to science and the advancement of our lives. Because of Alice Ball’s discovery, patients of leprosy were no longer required to be exiled to Kalaupapa, Molokai and could be treated at home. Known as irreverent, sharp-tongued and brilliant, Grace Hopper was able to help break down barriers for future scientists. She said, "The most important thing I've accomplished, other than building the compiler is training young people.” The ENIAC programmers may be a little less known than Grace Hopper, but their contributions are just as important as they were able to show that computers and programing isn’t just for men. A brilliant and innovative mind knows no gender, no race or nationality. They come from all walks of life and their determination and tenacity should be an inspiration for all young people, especially young girls, to pursue their fields regardless if they are told they cannot.

References

Beyer, Kurt (2012). Grace Hopper and the Invention of the Information Age. London, Cambridge: MIT Press. p. 198. ISBN 9780262517263. Retrieved February 4, 2020.

Fritz, W. Barkley (1996). "The Women of ENIAC" (PDF). IEEE Annals of the History of Computing. 18 (3): 13–28. doi:10.1109/85.511940. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-04. Retrieved February 4, 2020.

Grier, David (2007). When Computers Were Human. Princeton University Press. ISBN 9781400849369. Retrieved February 4, 2020.

Isaacson, Walter (September 18, 2014). "Walter Isaacson on the Women of ENIAC". Fortune. Archived from the original on 12 December 2018. Retrieved February 4, 2020.

Kent, Lauren. (January 27, 2020). The heroines STEM: Ten women in science you should know. https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/27/world/women-in-science-you-should-know-scn/index.html. Retrieved February 4, 2020.