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OldSchoolCool

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History's cool kids, looking fantastic!
A pictorial and video celebration of history's coolest kids, everything from beatniks to bikers, mods to rude boys, hippies to ravers. And everything in between.
If you've found a photo, video, or photo essay of people from the past looking fantastic, here's the place to share it.
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2: Please put the year or decade in title, otherwise your post will be removed.
3: All spam, racist, homophobic, sexist and offensive comments will result in an immediate, lifetime ban. This includes offensive comments about pimping, about people's moms and scoring women. Nobody cares about your sexual impulses, least of all the OP.
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5: All reposts less than six months old and all reposts less than a year old from Top 100 will be removed.
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7: We reserve the right to remove any post that doesn't showcase historical coolness. This includes photos, which are not obviously retro and portraits of famous young women doing nothing but posing.
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all 80 comments
[–]xxStitchxx 102 points103 points104 points  (9 children)
Ada Lovelace, Grace Hopper, and Radia Perlman. Those were some of the early female computer geeks, not what the picture suggests.
[–]amwreck 29 points30 points31 points  (7 children)
I was in the Navy as a "DP" (data processor). We learned a bit about Grace Hopper. She should be heralded as a hero in the world of computers.
[–]oneonetwooneonetwo 6 points7 points8 points  (0 children)
I did not know she had a destroyer named after her.
[–]Cheeseand0nions 4 points5 points6 points  (5 children)
Admiral Hopper was a guest on the David Letterman show. Fascinating woman.
[–]I_Think_I_Cant 7 points8 points9 points  (4 children)
I love her demonstration of nanoseconds. NBC Dave used to have the best esoteric guests.
[–]Cheeseand0nions 1 point2 points3 points  (1 child)
YES! I wanted to mention that in my post; the piece of wire, 6-8 inches long, that demonstrated how far current travels in one nanosecond.
[–]I_Think_I_Cant 1 point2 points3 points  (0 children)
There's a different video of her giving a lecture where she mentions it as ~11.8". I guess she was holding most of the length in her hand.
[–]AyeBraine 0 points1 point2 points  (0 children)
Her last joke is esoteric =) so subtle, she's a chessmaster at repartee (duh, considering she was a teaching professor BEFORE she became all this other stuff).
[–]reddilada 0 points1 point2 points  (0 children)
She guest lectured my computer ethics class back in '78. Still have my nanosecond.
[–]Masterpass 2 points3 points4 points  (0 children)
Lovelace is still benchmark for many early Comp Sci courses.
[–]Jeremiahjd 14 points15 points16 points  (5 children)
Fun fact, these women were actually called "computers", and thats where the name came from.
[–]oneonetwooneonetwo 11 points12 points13 points  (2 children)
Well, not so much these women. Computer was a largely female job that involved doing calculations but these people are actually early digital computing pioneers.
They are distinctly not adding numbers together in this picture.
[–]Jeremiahjd 0 points1 point2 points  (0 children)
so fascinating :)
[–]elljawa 1 point2 points3 points  (0 children)
no these women are robots. literal computers
[–]runfromthemasses 0 points1 point2 points  (0 children)
Yes, and women were hired because they could pay them less.
[–]positronik 29 points30 points31 points  (11 children)
I love pictures of old computers like these. You wouldn't think it, but there were actually a lot of women involved with computers back in the day. I wish the ratio of women to men involved with tech work stayed the same.
[–]BoogerDavis 2 points3 points4 points  (8 children)
On my job, there are as many women as men, maybe more. My manager is a woman. The CEO of the company is too.
[–]positronik 21 points22 points23 points  (4 children)
There's maybe one or two girls girls out of 30 students in most if my CS classes
[–]Sam-Gunn 10 points11 points12 points  (0 children)
IT isn't equal to managerial type jobs. More women are in business than tech, it really seems. A lot of women and higher ups in IT tend to do jobs that border IT, like Risk Management.
[–]ILLEGAL_EMMIGRANT 6 points7 points8 points  (2 children)
Accidentally went into a CS lesson on my campus last week and there were more girls than boys. Might just depend on the uni and how much they promote stereotypically male courses to women.
[–]not_James_blunt 1 point2 points3 points  (0 children)
I'm finishing my last year of cs, and my class with the most women is like 5 out of 55. However, in earlier years I took a web design elective class, which had pretty close to 50:50 men to women.
[–]asdfqwertyfghj 1 point2 points3 points  (0 children)
Depending on the lesson it could've been a cross up. The early level programming courses are part of a lot of majors so a lot of stem in general take those classes. But the second you get into like intermediate programming the male to female ratio goes HEAVILY in the male. But yes it'll also change uni to uni and class to class. Why it's better to look at a broad spectrum and there is definitely a lack of women in the CS field and that really sucks.
[–]FuckSolidarity -5 points-4 points-3 points  (2 children)
managers and CEOs don't work with computers
[–]BoogerDavis 3 points4 points5 points  (1 child)
Maybe where you work. Both came up from within. The development and test team is mostly women.
I don't work in Silicon Valley, don't develop phone apps, don't develop web apps, don't develop games.
[–]rockflagandeagle- -3 points-2 points-1 points  (0 children)
No apps at all? How do you make any money without making apps?
[–]TurloIsOK 0 points1 point2 points  (0 children)
Before the devices called computers existed, computer referred to women who worked mechanical calculators to compute mathematical results.
[–]dank_meme_auditor -2 points-1 points0 points  (0 children)
What a weird thing to wish. If women wanted to major in computer science and go on to tech careers, they would.

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Comments, continued...

[–]BoogerDavis 13 points14 points15 points  (0 children)
Ada Lovelace is wondering why anyone would be surprised.
[–]mantrap2 9 points10 points11 points  (0 children)
Yes because the work they did resembled traditional women's work at the time and because computer worked very different than today.
For example, wire memory involved techniques similar to knitting so it was only women who got hired for it. Punch cards involved typing just like on a secretarial typewriter.
Did some learn things and have roles beyond that? Yes, a few. But they were the exceptions mostly.
Similarly early IC wafer prober testing involved primarily women because "they have better eyes, smaller hands and more dexterous ability to align wafers manually". Asian women were preferred over white women also - "more petite for a petite and delicate job". That was later automated so now probers self-align themselves using optical pattern recognition. And now none work in the area typically (but also very few men as well).
We definitely should celebrate the early women (Hopper, etc.) but don't deceive yourself into thinking they were common or dominant - there were easily 1000:1 men to women back in the old days. I know because I'm old enough to remember personally!
[–]spacegh0stX 14 points15 points16 points  (6 children)
When I took programming classes in college there would be a full class of men and then like two girls if any. And the more advanced it got the less likely any classes would have girls. It was depressing as fuck.
[–]bitablackbear 7 points8 points9 points  (4 children)
I graduated as one of three other female comp sci majors. It can be pretty isolating sometimes when there are so few women especially in a tech major just because it feels like all your failures are attributed to the fact that you have a vagina. So the imposter syndrome is pretty high in women in technical fields which blows but knowing about Grace Hopper, Ada Lovelace and Margaret Hamilton helps a lot.
[–]bmystry -3 points-2 points-1 points  (3 children)
Which begs the questions. Why aren't women more common in comp sci. Comp sci was dominated by women at its foundation and women were the creators of a lot of the early stuff. Its not like men came around and said wow look at this cool shit you made, now get out.
[–]elljawa 2 points3 points4 points  (0 children)
historically women were encouraged to go into other fields. It will be interesting if this is different in 10-20 years, when people who are currently in elementary school are going to college
[–]AyeBraine 0 points1 point2 points  (0 children)
It's the rearing and cultural stereotypes. And I don't say stereotypes are bad, they just exist. Each mom and dad tell something to their kids just to answer their incessant questions. The rest get answered by media. Both point out that tech guys are, well, guys. So it's weird to aim there, almost like cross-dressing (although no one would say that consciously).
[–]dank_meme_auditor comment score below threshold-7 points-6 points-5 points  (0 children)
But we need equality! Quick, let's make a dozen more lucrative grants for "women in tech".
[–]PhyllisDietrichson 2 points3 points4 points  (0 children)
Make sure to check out Hidden Figures when it comes out next month.
[–]SmithiZit 2 points3 points4 points  (0 children)
And they grew up not knowing how to use the cable remote.
[–]buckethealien 2 points3 points4 points  (0 children)
When you input/output was punch cards...ugh
[–]Picsonly25 1 point2 points3 points  (0 children)
The lady on the far left looks like my mom's best friend from high school.
[–]LoudSue2 1 point2 points3 points  (0 children)
I wonder what these women would look like in modern times; if they were in their 20s and 30s now.
[–]StolenBitcoin -4 points-3 points-2 points  (12 children)
It's fun white washing history and all, but lets be honest, these women were employed to do menial boring "computing" work like add lists of 10,000+ digits by hand etc. Nothing to glorify here, sorry.
[–]amwreck 18 points19 points20 points  (0 children)
Grace Hopper invented the first compiler and created the beginnings of COBOL. Without her, you wouldn't have all of your extra accounts at Wells Fargo!
No, inventing computer programming languages is not menial, boring, computing work. It set the future of our largest computer systems.
[–]DeltaIndiaCharlieKil 11 points12 points13 points  (2 children)
They developed computer programming as we know it. They are the ones who designed the language for computers to do the "menial boring computing" that they had originally been hired to do.
Betty Holberton developed SORT/MERGE, which seems to be a big deal. I'm not a computer programmer, so I'm not sure.
And they were all highly skilled mathematicians. While you are correct that many were over qualified for the jobs they were given, they were able to go beyond that and invent much of the idea of what computers can do through programming. There is a lot to glorify.
[–]mantrap2 0 points1 point2 points  (1 child)
Mostly they DID NOT. Yes, there were a few. A wonderful few! But what /u/StolenCoin says is true - you ARE whitewashing and revising history to something it was not!
[–]Cavalier_Cavalier 2 points3 points4 points  (0 children)
I've heard this a lot, that early computing jobs were secretarial in nature which is why the ratio skewed so heavily towards women. Do you have any data or evidence for this?
I was reading articles on this and found this article by the Washington Post which mentions "keypunch girls" which sounds like the secretary-like role mentioned. However, the article also mentions that there was indeed a large but also separate influx of women into computer science/systems analyst positions.
The article goes on to suggest that the field was still somewhat undefined and in it's infancy, so attitudes on "traditional" roles were not yet established, meaning women were less intimidated from going into the field and employers/fellow employees were not so averse to female programmers. This from Stanford and This from the Smithsonian also suggest that employer attitudes toward computers in general thought that hardware was where the "brainpower" needed to go, and software was quasi-clerical (Both articles also say this is not true) when in fact, the female dominated software side was making suggestions on how to improve hardware.
I think the truth lies between narratives. Yes, there was a field of jobs that included a lot of "copying" responsibilities, but I don't think celebrating women in computer science is white washing history. In the (relatively) brief period where CS was finding it's place in the world, a non-trivial number of students and pioneers of the field were women. I think people end up lumping keypunch roles with early computer scientist roles together and taking the entire group as one or the other when they are nothing alike.
[–]Illipid 13 points14 points15 points  (7 children)
That's not true. Margaret Hamilton was a real genius.
[–]EntityDamage 14 points15 points16 points  (2 children)
On November 22nd, 2016, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by U.S. President Barack Obama for her work leading the development of on-board flight software for NASA's Apollo moon missions.
What a coincidence...she got that today!
[–]spinalmemes 2 points3 points4 points  (1 child)
Maybe OP saw a news article about her receiving this award today and then started reading about her and then decided to post this pic? Would that still be a coincidence? Lol
[–]EntityDamage 0 points1 point2 points  (0 children)
good point
[–]mantrap2 2 points3 points4 points  (0 children)
No one said she wasn't. The point is women were rare back then - not like this post suggests otherwise!
[–]Charand comment score below threshold-10 points-9 points-8 points  (2 children)
Sure there were definitely women who played a huge part in the history of computers and programming, but the bulk of women computer operators were simply typists. This article kinda neglects that fact by naming a few great female minds, as if all the typists were geniuses too.
[–]DeltaIndiaCharlieKil 5 points6 points7 points  (0 children)
They were mathematicians used as human calculators. That is not the same as taking dictation.
[–]spellingchallanged 2 points3 points4 points  (0 children)
And for every Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, there are countless men who dropped out of college and didn't end up as tech billionaires. So, should we should ignore their accomplishments too because they are the exception to the rule? Of course not.
Now do you see how silly you sound?
[–]bishbam[S] 2 points3 points4 points  (0 children)
Looks like they're carrying 24 packs of beer rather than some huge bit of old school tech
[–]Gentipede 1 point2 points3 points  (0 children)
No they weren't.
[–]craizzuk 0 points1 point2 points  (0 children)
Apples new range of dongles
[–]codybasso 0 points1 point2 points  (0 children)
i bet they did really hot Chaplin cosplay
[–]jihiggs 0 points1 point2 points  (0 children)
nerd chicks are so hot
[–]zeal00 0 points1 point2 points  (0 children)
Try Charles Babbage, over 100 years prior.
[–]2BlackPeople 0 points1 point2 points  (0 children)
These women invented and built these computers, or operated them?
[–]Emperor_of_Pruritus 0 points1 point2 points  (0 children)
Aren't these women holding different iterations of single bytes of memory?
[–]ma3x5 -5 points-4 points-3 points  (0 children)
2 1 4 3
[–]Arthur_Dent-42 -1 points0 points1 point  (0 children)
The reason for it was that computing was all about typing, which was secretarial work, which was a job usually done by a woman
[–]CountVilheilm -4 points-3 points-2 points  (2 children)
This was during the cold war. They probably helped spy on the Western Bloc.
[–]amwreck 2 points3 points4 points  (1 child)
WWII, actually. In a post about history, where there is an article about said history, you should try to be correct. Maybe read the article or something.
[–]CountVilheilm 1 point2 points3 points  (0 children)
1947 was after WWII. Maybe I'll scold myself with a red hot poker for the rest of the day.
[–]spinalmemes -5 points-4 points-3 points  (3 children)
"The first computer geeks, 1947"
I can tell they are women, thanks
[–]DeltaIndiaCharlieKil 7 points8 points9 points  (2 children)
I think the point of the article is that they were specifically left out from history because they were women and people are trying to rectify that. While they were in many pictures, they were not named nor given any credit for their work on the ENIAC while they male coworkers were.
[–]spinalmemes -1 points0 points1 point  (1 child)
I think we all know that those times were like that. Its pretty implicit these days that all people are equal. We should at least make it implicit, instead of having to say "LOOK AT THESE WOMEN" when its obvious..... Thats called patronizing. Theres no reason a woman cant do those things, thus theres no reason to point out they are women.
[–]DeltaIndiaCharlieKil 0 points1 point2 points  (0 children)
I think it's pretty implicit that people don't believe everyone is equal these days. I think it has become much better, and we should acknowledge the incredible gains we have made as a society. Progress doesn't mean finished.
Computer programing and computer sciences are still very uneven gender wise. Much of that is from the social idea of who is good at it. I think people would like to think that they believe men and women are equally able to do this type of work, but if you were forced to picture someone immediately as a "computer programmer" who would you envision? Would it be a woman? Because I wouldn't. That doesn't mean it should always be a woman, but if we were to actually be an equal society gender wise at least 50% of the population should picture a woman as a possible default. And I would guess that we are not there.
It's also a way of paying respect to people who were intentionally overlooked. While we may be better now, we weren't then and it is important to acknowledge that and learn from it. And give them their due.
[–]FemiNazio -1 points0 points1 point  (0 children)
Yep! Not the one in the black dress though, thanks.
[–]kmar81 comment score below threshold-14 points-13 points-12 points  (2 children)
This post title is totally misleading and wrong.
Those women were workers at a facility where operating computers was like managing a telephonic switchboard. These women were no more geeks than your average IT customer service employee is.
[–]DeltaIndiaCharlieKil 13 points14 points15 points  (1 child)
While the five women worked on ENIAC, they developed subroutines, nesting, and other fundamental programming techniques, and arguably invented the discipline of programming digital computers. Bartik's programming partner on the ENIAC was Betty Holberton. Together, they created the master program for the ENIAC and led the ballistics programming group. The team also learned to physically modify the machine, moving switches and rerouting cables, in order to program it. In addition to performing the original ballistic trajectories they were hired to compute, they soon became operators on the Los Alamos nuclear calculations, and generally expanded the programming repertoire of the machine.
And they had to figure it out by themselves:
with no manual to rely on, the group reviewed diagrams of the device, interviewed the engineers who had built it, and used this information to teach themselves the skills they needed. Initially, they were not allowed to see the ENIAC's hardware at all since it was still classified and they had not received security clearance; they had to learn how to program the machine solely through studying schematic diagrams. The five-woman team were also not initially given space to work together, so they found places to work where they could, in abandoned classrooms and fraternity houses.
Definitely sounds like a customer service employee.
[–]BonzerDrums comment score below threshold-17 points-16 points-15 points  (3 children)
They didn't know shit they were just told to hold this stuff and look pretty.
[–]apples_apples_apples 9 points10 points11 points  (0 children)
Pfft, you're the one that doesn't know shit.
While the five women worked on ENIAC, they developed subroutines, nesting, and other fundamental programming techniques, and arguably invented the discipline of programming digital computers. Bartik's programming partner on the ENIAC was Betty Holberton. Together, they created the master program for the ENIAC and led the ballistics programming group. The team also learned to physically modify the machine, moving switches and rerouting cables, in order to program it. In addition to performing the original ballistic trajectories they were hired to compute, they soon became operators on the Los Alamos nuclear calculations, and generally expanded the programming repertoire of the machine.
And they had to figure it out by themselves:
with no manual to rely on, the group reviewed diagrams of the device, interviewed the engineers who had built it, and used this information to teach themselves the skills they needed. Initially, they were not allowed to see the ENIAC's hardware at all since it was still classified and they had not received security clearance; they had to learn how to program the machine solely through studying schematic diagrams. The five-woman team were also not initially given space to work together, so they found places to work where they could, in abandoned classrooms and fraternity houses.
Definitely sounds like a customer service employee.
But, women only exist to look pretty for "men" like you, right?
[–]amwreck 5 points6 points7 points  (1 child)
Source?
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