Female ENIAC Programmers

Websites

Wired Magazine covers the programmers in the article “Women Proto-Programmers Get Their Just Reward,” which briefly discusses the role these women held in the history of computing and the recent attempts to publicize their involvement with the ENIAC.

The “Programming the ENIAC” page from Columbia’s Computing History site offers information and images about the way ENIAC was programmed – and on the women who did the programming.

Videos

Top Secret Rosies: The Female Computers of WWII:

The documentary traces the stories of several female ballistics computers of WWII. The computational work that these women performed was strictly classified and crucial to successful military operations abroad. Later, several of these women, including Jean Jennings Bartik, were chosen to program the ENIAC. Most of these computers, however, never entered the computer industry, opting instead to raise families or enter fields in which they were given more recognition. The film references Eckert, Mauchly, and Goldstine, and situates the computers’ stories in the larger context of the war and of women’s rights and roles.

Don’t have time to watch an entire documentary? Then check out this five-minute interview with Betty Jean Jennings Bartik, an ENIAC programmers who went on the develop a career in computing.

Watch an hour-long interview with Jean Jennings Bartik for a more in-depth look at Bartik’s life and accomplishments.

Articles

IEEE: “The Women of ENIAC,” W. Barkley Fritz: This article provides the stories of the women who worked at the Moore School and on the ENIAC, in their own words. In addition to the retrospectives offered by the women, the author  includes narrative that situates these individual stories in the context of computing history.